THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 
AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE 


The  Inside  Story 

of  Austro- German  Intrigue 

or 

How  the  World  War  Was 
Brought  About 

By 
JOSEPH  GORICAR 

Formerly  of  the  Austro-Uungarian  Foreign  Service 
Atid 

LYMAN  BEECHER  STOWE 


Gahdkn  City  New  York 

DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1920 


COPYRIGHT,  1920,  BY 

DOtTBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

Alii  BIGHTa  RESERVED,  INCLUDING  THAT  OF 

TRANSLATION  INTO  FOREIGN  LANGUAGES, 

INCLUDINQ  THE  SCANDINAVIAN 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE 

All  the  facts  in  this  book  were  supplied  by  Doctor 
Goricar  who  also  wrote  the  original  version  of  the  text. 
This  text  was  then  largely  rewritten,  and  put  into  its 
present  form,  by  Mr.  Stowe.  Since,  however,  the  in- 
formation, experiences,  and  arguments  are  Doctor 
Goricar's,  it  has  seemed  best  to  use  the  first  personal 
pronoun  in  spite  of  the  dual  authorship  of  the  book. 

The  Publishers. 


4  f 4904 


AUTHORS'   PREFACE 

The  evidence  presented  in  this  book  was  gathered  in 
the  course  of  Doctor  (ioricar's  fourteen  years'  service 
as  a  foreign  representative  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Empire.  It  demonstrates,  we  believe,  that  the  Central 
Empires  deliberately  brought  about  the  war — planned 
it,  i)repared  for  it,  wanted  it,  and  feared  only  one  thing 
— that  they  would  not  get  it.  Why?  Their  aim  was  a 
new  division  of  the  earth — a  redistribution  of  the  eco- 
nomic wealth  of  the  world.  What  otlier  nations  had 
tiiey  coveted — and  proposed  to  take  by  the  sword. 

How  was  this  to  be  brought  about?  By  the  creation 
of  an  invincible  Mittel  Europa,  separating  Eastern 
Europe  from  the  Western  nations. 

Concretely,  the  .plan  called  for  the  conquest  of  Con- 
stantinople, the  "cornerstone  of  the  earth,"  the  taking 
over  of  the  heirloom  of  Turkey,  and  thereby  the  land 
and  sea  routes  to  Egypt,  India,  and  Oceania, 

The  first  feature  of  this  programme  was  the  weakening 
of  Russia.  Only  a  feeble  Russia  would  permit  herself 
to  be  shut  off  from  the  open  sea  to  the  south.  Such 
weakening  could  be  effected  by  conquest  and  j)artition 
only.  This  accomplished,  the  final  denouement  would 
l)e  the  domination  of  Africa  with  all  its  resources,  and 
this  overwhelming  predominance  would  bring  in  its  train 
the  over-lordship  of  Australia  and  South  America. 

The  first  step  was  to  be  a  surprise  attack  on  Serbia 
and   Russia.     Being  unable  to  find — even  after  long 


viiL  AUTHORS'  PREFACE 

search — any  justifiable  pretext  for  war,  the  Central 
Empires,  over  a  series  of  years,  notably  in  1908,  1909, 
1912, 1913,  and  1914,  fabricated  pretexts.  If  they  had 
not  found,  in  the  assassination  of  the  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand,  a  most  convenient  excuse  for  war,  the  Foreign 
Office  in  Vienna  would  have  continued  its  machinations 
against  Serbia  and  Russia  until  it  had  succeeded  in 
creating  a  casus  belli.  To  unmask  the  plots  of  the 
Foreign  Office  at  Vienna  and  show  how  it  was  the  ad- 
vance agent  of  Berlin  in  this  grandiose  scheme  for 
world  domination  is  the  purpose  of  this  book. 

Fortunately,  men  and  parties,  in  fact  all  the  plotters 
and  preachers  of  war  against  Serbia  and  Russia,  have 
convicted  themselves  out  of  their  own  mouths.  The 
authors  have  throughout  allowed  the  conspirators  to 
expose  themselves,  while  they  have  sought  to  furnish 
the  setting  and  atmosphere  by  giving  occasional 
glimpses  of  the  great  stage  on  which  the  World  War 
was  rehearsed. 

Joseph  Goricar. 

Lyman  Beecher  Stowe. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction.    By  Albert  Bushnell  Hart  ...        a 

Cn.U'TEH 

I.  The  Coming  to  Power  of  the  Austro-German 
War  Parties,  1906-1909— Their  First  Plot  to 
Create  a  Pretext  for  War  Against  Serbia  and 
Russia 3 

II.  The  Second  Attempt  of  Austro-German  Di- 
plomacy to  Precipitate  European  War,  1909 
— How  the  War  Plots  Were  Unmasked  28 

III.  Austro-German  Plans  for  the  Conquest  and 

Partition   of  Russia — Bismarck   Effectively 
Opposes  The.se  Plans 49 

IV.  The  Ofener  Hofburg  War  Conference,  October, 

1912 — Bethraann-HoUweg   Commits   Ger- 
many to  War,  December,  1912  72 

V.  Count  Bcrchtold,  Aehrenthal's  Understudy, 
Concocts  the  Notorious  Prochaska  Affair — 
How  the  Third  Attempt  to  Start  the  War 
Failed 100 

VI.     Berchtold's  Albanian  Comedy — Prince  Hohen- 

lohe's  Mission  to  the  Czar 130 

VII.  Bethmann-IIollweg  Predicts  War  Between 
"Germandom  and  Slavdom,"  April,  1913 — 
Austria's  Ultimatum  to  Montenegro  .  147 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

VIII.  Tisza,  Austria-Hungary's  Man  of  "Blood  and 
Iron,"  Comes  to  Power,  June,  1913 —  Austria- 
Hungary  Urges  Italy  to  Join  the  Central 
Empires  in  European  War,  August,  1913     .     167 

IX.  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  Pronounces  World 
War  Inevitable,  May,  1914 — Tisza  Counts 
on  Half  the  German  Army  for  War  Against 
Russia,  March,  1914 183 

X.  Austria  Selects  Albania  as  the  Cradle  for  the 
World  War — ^The  Recruiting  of  Volunteers  for 
War  in  Albania,  June,  1914 20t 

XL  Count  Tisza  Constructs  a  Casus  Belli  Out  of  the 
Archduke's  Murder — The  Final  Conference 
Between  the  Arch-plotters  of  the  World 
War — Kaiser  Wilhelm,  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand,  and  Grand  Admiral  Von  Tirpitz   .     216 

XII.  The  Military  Chiefs  Assume  Complete  Control 
of  Austro-German  Foreign  Affairs — Count 
Forgach's  Confession  Explodes  Theory  of  So- 
called  "Critical  Days"  of  World  War  .      .     230 

XIII.  Russian  Mobilization  as  the  Cause  of  the  W^ar 

— A  Glimpse  Behind  the  Scenes  in  Berlin 
During  the  First  Three  Months  of  the  War   .     245 

XIV.  Mobilizing  Half  a  Million  Men  in  America — 

How  the  Austro-Hungarian  Consulates  Sec- 
retly Raised  an  Army  Behind  America's  Back     266 

XV.     The  United  States  of  Slavia — A  Prerequisite 

for  a  United  States  of  Europe 274 

Appendix 295 


INTRODUCTION 

The  history  of  a  great  war  is  never  written  while  it 
goes  on  or  in  the  decades  immediately  following.  Ar- 
chives are  closed,  the  memoirs  and  private  papers  of 
participants  are  not  revealed,  the  parties  most  inter- 
ested try  to  tlirow  a  cloud  about  the  causes,  origin,  and 
progress  of  the  contest.  We  are  only  now  beginning 
to  understand  the  Crimean  War  of  1854,  and  are  still 
in  grave  doubt  as  to  the  responsibility  for  war  and 
peace  in  the  struggle  between  Japan  and  China  of 
1904-05. 

The  World  War  has  proved  an  exception,  for  we  al- 
ready know  enough  of  the  intimate  reasons  for  the  ac- 
tion of  most  of  the  great  powers  for  a  judgment  on  the 
ultimate  responsibility,  and  even  on  the  details  of  the 
period  immediately  preceding  hostilities.  Conquest 
and  revolution  have  laid  bare  the  written  records. 
Generals  and  statesmen,  in  bickering  with  each  other 
and  trying  to  throw  off  unpleasant  responsibilities, 
have  furnished  the  evidence  for  their  own  condemna- 
tion. From  month  to  month  the  tide  of  materials 
rises  till  mankind  is  at  last  able  to  pillory  the  sover- 
eigns, the  leading  statesmen,  and  military  chiefs  of 
Germany  and  Austria-Himgary,  as  the  authors  of  this 
terrific  world  woe  and  the  unscrupulous  engineers  who, 
for  the  salvation  of  mankind,  were  at  last  "hoist  with 
their  own  petard." 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

To  make  available  for  the  public  some  of  the  accu- 
mulating knowledge  with  regard  to  the  personal  and 
national  responsibility  for  the  war  is  one  of  the  pur- 
poses of  Doctor  Goricar.  He  has  made  himself  master 
of  many  of  the  self-revealing  books,  articles,  and 
speeches  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  pre-war  period. 
He  has  also  made  a  personal  contribution,  drawn  from 
his  own  experiences,  on  the  oflBcial  duties  of  the  for- 
eign representatives  and  agents  of  Austria-Hungary. 
He  is  aided  by  acquaintance  with  public  men  who 
helped  to  frame  the  great  decisions,  and  by  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  situation  and  aspirations  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  mighty  Slav  race. 

This  book  is  therefore  much  more  than  a  vivid  state- 
ment of  facts  already  known  or  surmised;  it  is  a  direct 
contribution  of  new  views  based  on  materials  hitherto 
not  accessible  even  to  historical  searchers.  Every 
reader  will  feel  that  it  is  a  living  record  of  the  conclu- 
sions of  a  man  who  has  for  years  been  in  the  thick  of  the 
complications  and  intrigues  which  he  describes.  It  is  a 
human  document. 

A  few  words  should  therefore  be  said  as  to  the  per- 
sonality of  the  writer.  Doctor  Goricar  is  a  Slovene; 
one  of  the  few  Slavs  who  were  admitted  by  the  German 
and  Magyar  heads  of  the  foreign  and  commercial 
offices  of  Austria-Hungary  to  positions  of  responsibil- 
ity; a  man  of  education,  a  man  of  spirit,  a  man  of 
skill  in  consular  affairs.  Yet  he  could  not  descend  to 
be  the  tool  of  those  who  employed  him.  After  long 
service  in  consulates  in  many  widely  scattered  places, 
including  Belgrade,  he  was  found  so  impracticable  that 
he  was  finally  transferred  to  the  United  States  as  a  kind 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

of  punishment.  In  this  new  capacity  he  became  aware  of 
the  system  of  keeping  the  oflBcial  record  of  Austro- 
Hungarians  in  the  United  States  who  would  be  needed 
when  the  great  war  came.  Just  before  the  struggle 
began  he  returned  to  Europe  and  soon  left  the  service 
of  Austria-Hungary  forever.  The  most  vital  part  of 
this  book  is  made  possible  by  his  wide  experience  in 
many  lands  and  his  connection  with  public  men  who 
sometimes  told  him  momentous  truths. 

Not  the  least  service  is  the  revelation  of  the  by-ways 
of  diplomacy  and  influence  habitually  used  by  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Foreign  Office.  The  book  abounds 
in  incidents  and  conversations  which  show  us  the  web 
of  intrigue — the  hired  newspapers,  the  forged  documents, 
the  artificial  treason  trials,  the  invention  of  outrages 
upon  Austrian  officials  in  other  lands.  Without  under- 
taking a  systematic  account  of  the  methods  of  Aus- 
trian diplomacy,  the  book  in  every  chapter  discloses 
a  secret,  deceptive,  and  prejudiced  habit  of  mind  from 
which  would  spring  nothing  but  harm  to  other  nations 
and  eventual  ruin  to  the  Hapsburg  Empire. 

Doctor  Goricar  accepts  as  a  fact  the  complicated  and 
autocratic  system  of  government  in  the  former  Austro- 
Hungarian  Empire  and  its  historical  background;  the 
narrative  shuttles  to  and  fro  from  Vienna  to  Buda- 
pest, just  as  the  combinations  of  the  policies  of  Germans 
and  Magyars  have  oscillated.  As  a  Slav,  caught  in  the 
cogs  of  this  machinery,  his  sympathies  are  always  with 
that  depressed  portion  of  the  population  of  the  former 
empire.  To  appreciate  his  book  one  must  keep  in 
mind  the  fundamentals  of  the  mighty  structure  which 
has  now  crumbled  into  fragments.     The  approach  to 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

the  war  tragedy  brings  out  the  main  elements  in  the 
strength  and  weakness  of  Austria-Hungary. 

In  the  first  place,  it  has  been  a  frontier  land,  set 
upon  the  easternmost  edge  of  Roman  Catholic  Europe. 
In  the  second  place,  it  has  for  ages  been  hemmed  in 
between  the  Teuton,  the  Slav  and  the  Turk,  against 
whom  it  was  a  bulwark  of  Christendom.  In  the  third 
place,  it  is  made  up  of  two  central  units,  Austria  with 
a  population  of  10,000,000  Germans  (also  2,000,000 
in  Hungary),  and  Hungary  with  a  population  of 
10,000,000  Magyars.  Each  of  these  units  dominated 
a  section  of  the  Dual  Empire,  in  which  there  was  a 
Slav  population  of  17,000,000  in  Austria  and  (with  the 
addition  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  which  were  not 
strictly  within  the  ojBBcial  boundary)  10,000,000  in 
Hungary;  Rumanians,  Italians,  and  some  smaller  ele- 
ments added  about  3,500,000  more,  mostly  in  the 
Hungarian  section,  making  the  total  of  the  Empire 
about  51,500,000  in  1910.  From  these  figures  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  Slavs  were  in  the  majority  in  the  Em- 
pire, and  also  in  each  half  of  the  Empire.  Yet  such 
intelligent  and  capable  people  as  the  Bohemians, 
the  Galician  Poles,  and  the  Croatians  were  submerged 
by  minorities,  and  compelled  to  accept  domestic  and 
foreign  policies  contrary  to  their  interests  and  certain 
to  lead  to  foreign  war. 

Another  element  of  the  problem  was  the  '*  Drang 
nach  Ostenj"  which  was  the  sequel  of  the  long  wars 
with  Turkey,  and  which  made  Austria  a  focus  of  in- 
trigue and  disturbance  in  the  Balkans  and  eventually 
the  enemy  and  obstacle  of  Russia.  The  Government 
of  the  Empire,  notwithstanding  the  existence  of  elec- 


INTRODUCTION  w 

tive  parliaments,  was  practically  in  the  hands  of  the 
hereditary  nobility  of  Austria  and  of  Hungary,  acting 
through  the  governmental  machine  centred  in  Vienna 
in  the  person  of  the  aged  emperor,  Francis  Joseph,  a 
machine  usually  called  "The  Monarchy." 

No  one  is  more  alive  to  the  weakness,  covetousness, 
and  profligacy  of  that  government  than  Doctor  Goricar, 
for  he  views  it  from  within.  His  theme,  however,  is 
not  so  much  a  discussion  of  the  faults  of  the  Empire 
as  an  examination  of  three  fundamental  questions: 
(1)  The  criminal  policy  which  it  pursued  in  foreign 
affairs,  including  the  partnership  with  Germany  in  a 
far-reajching  plan  of  conquest  and  spoliation;  (2)  The 
enmity  alike  of  Germans  and  Magyars  to  the  Slavs, 
whether  within  or  without  their  empire;  and (3)  The  de- 
liberate bringing  on  of  the  Great  War  to  serve  the 
arrogance  and  ambition  of  the  ruling  classes. 

I.  The  first  of  these  three  lines  of  treatment  is  based 
upon  the  belief  that  for  many  years  Austria-Hungary 
and  Germany  have  been  conspiring  to  bring  about  a 
war  to  despoil  Russia  of  territory  and  wealth  and  at  the 
same  time  to  make  impossible  a  Pan-Slav  union. 
Doctor  Goricar  goes  back  to  1854  to  show  that  Germany 
was  at  that  time  engaged  in  such  a  j)olicy.  In  that 
period,  when  Prussia  and  Austria  were  rivals,  drifting 
into  a  war  for  supremacy  in  Central  Euro})e,  it  is  hard 
to  believe  that  they  were  also  co-conspirators  watching 
the  opportunity  for  an  eastern  war.  It  is,  however, 
undeniable  that  in  1878  Germany  came  to  the  rescue  of 
tlie  Austrian  cause,  gave  to  Austria  a  right  of  occupa- 
tion which  was  expected  to  lead  to  annexation  in  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina,  and  pried  Russia  away  from  Turkey. 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

This  was  followed  by  the  break  up  of  the  Drei  Kaiser 
Allianz;  and  in  1882  came  the  Triple  Alliance  with 
Russia  outside  and  Italy  inside.  From  that  time  it  is 
undeniable  that  the  two  Central  Powers  had  a  common 
policy  hostile  to  Russia;  and  that  this  pressure  led  Rus- 
sia to  direct  alliance  with  France  and  indirect  alliance 
with  Great  Britain,  thus  constituting  the  Triple  En- 
tente. 

How  far  the  combination  of  the  two  powers  aimed  at 
the  violent  destruction  of  the  Russian  Empire  it  is 
hard  to  say.  The  direct  evidence  of  Doctor  Goricar 
makes  clear  that  prime  ministers  and  foreign  ministers 
and  emperors  looked  that  way.  We  have  abundant 
proofs  from  other  sources  furnished  by  the  lurid  argu- 
ments of  the  Pan-Germanists  who  were  always  talking 
about  the  fertile  lands  and  commercial  opportunities 
of  western  Russia.  Doctor  Goricar  sees  only  aggression 
and  fraud  on  the  side  of  Germany  and  Austria;  and 
good  temper,  love  of  peace,  and  a  spirit  of  concession 
on  the  side  of  Russia.  Perhaps  the  colours  are  too 
strong  in  both  of  these  pictures.  What  the  book  in- 
disputably shows  is  that  in  1908-09,  and  again  in 
1913,  the  Austrians  were  for  war  and  the  Germans 
were  right  behind  them.  He  makes  it  clear  that  the 
World  War  was  postponed  from  time  to  time  because 
of  the  rush  of  new  conditions  brought  about  by  the  revo- 
lution in  Turkey,  the  Balkan  wars,  and  the  interference 
of  western  European  powers  which,  however,  he  seems 
to  consider  was  a  minor  element. 

II.  The  argument  that  the  war  was  in  essence  anti- 
Slav  is  put  with  the  fire  and  earnestness  of  a  member  of 
that  gifted  and  distressed  race.     The  book  adds  much 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

to  the  volume  of  evidence  showing  the  unpleasant 
effect  on  the  Dual  Empire  of  the  unexpected  victory  of 
the  Slavs  against  Turkey  in  the  AVar  of  1912.  He  rightly 
includes  the  Bulgars  as  essentially  a  Slav  people. 
Emperor  William  increased  the  German  army  because 
of  the  new  possibility  of  a  capable  Slav  military  force 
in  the  Balkans.  The  Serbs  raised  their  heads  proudly, 
and  the  neighbouring  Slovenes  and  Croats  and  Bos- 
nians were  aroused  to  a  new  sense  of  their  degradation 
in  the  Austro-Hungarian  Empire.  From  the  point 
of  view  of  the  Magyar  and  the  German  such  race  and 
national  elation  was  treasonable.  As  a  matter  of  fact. 
Doctor  Goricar  makes  it  clear  enough  that  they  did 
not  desire  to  be  Serbs,  but  were  simply  on  the  watch 
for  the  opportunity  to  be  free.  No  American  who  ac- 
cepts the  principles  of  his  own  government  can  fail  to 
sympathize  with  that  desire  and  to  feel  that  the  re- 
pression practised  by  the  Austro-Hungarian  Govern- 
ment and  the  sympathy  of  Germany  were  contrary  to 
justice  and  the  interests  of  mankind.  Nor  can  any 
American  be  indifferent  to  the  picture  of  a  future  Slav 
federation  inspired  by  our  own  success. 

III.  The  book  was  not  wTitten  primarily  to  inves- 
tigate the  causes  of  the  World  W^ar,  but  it  throws  a 
searchlight  on  the  whole  matter  by  its  inside  history  of 
the  events  of  the  half  dozen  years  preceding  the  war. 
The  absorbing  narrative  places  before  the  reader  in 
quick  succession  the  proof  that  the  German  Court, 
the  high  officials  of  the  Foreign  Office,  the  general  staffs 
of  army  and  navy,  had  a  complete  understanding  with 
the  Austro-Hungarians  confirmed  by  frequent  meet- 
ings and  joint  plans  of  action.     The  whole  narrative 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

converges  upon  the  decision  of  Austria  to  smash  Ser- 
bia for  the  unpardonable  crime  of  showing  to  the  world 
that  men  of  the  Serb  race  could  combine,  organize,  and 
fight. 

That  decision  was  reached  long  before  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  heir  to  the  Imperial  throne.  It  was  backed 
up  by  the  Germans  from  point  to  point.  The  dispatches 
printed  in  the  appendices  make  it  clear  that  the  pre- 
tences of  the  German  oflScials,  that  they  were  not  aware 
of  the  text  of  the  Austrian  ultimatum  as  it  was  actually 
presented,  were  clumsy  lies.  It  is  further  proved  be- 
yond question  that  the  cry  about  Russian  mobilization 
was  a  camouflage.  War  was  determined  on;  and  it 
only  remained,  if  possible,  to  put  up  some  kind  of  paste- 
board excuse  which  would  keep  Great  Britain  out  of  the 
struggle. 

With  all  the  conclusions  of  Doctor  Goricar  the  reader 
may  not  agree.  That  the  book  is  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  of  the  rivalries  and  intrigues  which 
preceded  the  war  is  certain.  The  lively  style,  the  inter- 
est of  the  narrative,  the  personal  touch,  make  it  one  of 
the  essential  books  on  the  period.  It  also  points  out 
to  the  world  the  inevitable  results  of  attempts  to  sup- 
press minority  races  in  an  empire,  and  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  truth,  honour,  and  human  sympathy  which  come 
from  a  selfish,  secret,  and  lying  diplomacy. 

Albert  Bushnell  Hart. 


THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 
AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE 


THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF  AUSTRO- 
GERMAN  INTRIGUE 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Coming  to  Power  of  the  Austro-German 
War  Parties,  1906-09 

their  first  plot  to  create  a  pretext  for  war 
against  serbia  and  russl-v. 

I  WAS  Acting  Consul  General  of  Austria-Hungary 
at  Odessa,  watching  the  slowly  gathering  forces 
of  the  Russian  Revolution  which  were  to  cul- 
minate a  decade  later  when  in  October,  1906, 
Baron  Lexa  von  Aehrenthal  became  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  This 
was  the  crowning  triumph  of  a  long,  ambitious, 
and  arduous  career.  It  placed  Baron  Aehrenthal 
practically  at  the  helm  of  the  Ship  of  State.  In 
Austria  the  very  existence  of  the  monarchy  and 
dynasty  was  dependent  upon  alliances  with  foreign 
jiowers.  Hence  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
came  to  be  in  fact,  if  not  in  name,  the  head  of 
llie  Government.  Aehrenthal,  both  in  personal 
characteristics  and  in  antecedents,  was  typical 
of  the  modern  type  of  Austrian  diplomat.    Through 

3 


4  THB;mSipB  STORY  OF 

his  Jewish  father  he  was  affiHated  with  "Big 
Business";  through  his  mother,  with  the  great  land 
junkers  of  Bohemia.  As  a  Slav  I  viewed  his  taking 
the  helm  with  misgivings  and  even  dread.  He  had 
been  for  ten  years  Ambassador  to  Russia.  During 
this  time  he  had  become  known  in  the  inner  circles 
of  diplomacy  as  the  chief  alarmist  regarding  Pan- 
Slavism.  With  him  it  was  a  fetish,  an  obsession. 
Aehrenthal  now  became  at  once  the  foremost 
exponent  of  a  plan  which  represented  the  revival 
of  the  youthful  ambition  of  his  aged  emperor  and 
which  always  came  to  the  fore  whenever  Russia 
showed  signs  of  weakness.  This  plan  aimed  at 
the  conquest  and  partition  of  Russia  with  the  aid 
of  Germany  as  explained  in  a  subsequent  chap- 
ter. Thus  was  Austria  to  be  strengthened  both 
internally  and  externally  and  the  Hapsburg  throne 
given  a  firmer  foundation.  The  plan,  originated 
in  1854  during  the  Crimean  War,  had  several  times 
been  laid  before  Bismarck,  but  each  time  he  re- 
fused, as  we  shall  see,  to  back  it.  It  had  been 
brought  up  again  as  recently  as  1904-05  when 
Russia  was  weakened  from  her  war  with  Japan. 
This  time  Kaiser  Wilhelm  refused  the  bait  because, 
taking  advantage  of  Russia's  temporarily  impotent 
condition,  he  had  extorted  from  her  a  commercial 
treaty  the  terms  of  which  were  so  ruinous  to  Russia 
and  so  favourable  to  Germany  as  in  a  sense  to 
make  Germany  the  real  victor  in  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War. 


AUSTRO-GER^IAN  INTRIGUE  5 

During  the  decade  in  which  Aehrenthal  was 
Ambassador  to  Russia  he  had  made  himself,  as 
has  been  said,  the  greatest  alarmist  regarding  the 
so-called  Pan-Slav  menace.  Through  the  diplo- 
matic and  military  spy  system,  which  he  developed 
to  a  degree  undreamt  of  by  the  Czar's  government, 
he  became  intimately  acquainted  with  Russia's 
resources,  potentialities,  available  equipment,  and 
weaknesses.  Finally  came  the  Russo-Japanese 
War,  with  the  defeat  of  Russia.  Aehrenthal  be- 
came convinced  that  Russia  was  now  weak  enough 
to  be  defeated  by  the  combined  armies  of  Austria 
and  Gennany,  provided  the  blow  could  be  struck 
before  she  had  time  fully  to  recuperate.  From 
this  time  it  became  his  consuming  passion  to  pre- 
cipitate a  war  with  Russia. 

Upon  Aehrenthal's  accession  to  the  Foreign 
Office  in  1906,  his  scheme  was  adopted  with  avidity 
by  a  powerful  Court  camarilla  and  at  the  Ball- 
platz,  and  received  also  the  sanction  and  the  patron- 
age of  no  less  a  personage  than  the  heir  to  the 
throne,  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand.  The 
plan,  however,  was  useless  unless  the  unqualified 
support  of  the  German  Kaiser  and  his  army 
could  be  secured,  as  is  evident  from  what  follows. 
The  Kaiser  gave  it  his  instant  and  whole-hearted 
approval  and  agreed  to  back  it  to  the  limit  with 
his  vast  military  resources. 

It  is  now  easily  seen  why  the  Kaiser's  backing 
was  so  readily  secured.     The  Pan-German   and 


6  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

"Mittel-Europa"  ideas  required  the  crushing  of 
Russia  for  their  reaHzation.  The  Balkan  Peninsula 
was  the  backbone  of  the  proposed  Central  Euro- 
pean Empire.  The  Balkan  States  must  either 
become  the  creatures  of  Berlin  or  they  must  be 
crushed.  A  strong  and  united  Russia  would  never 
allow  her  small  racial  kinsfolk  either  to  be  absorbed 
or  crushed  by  Austria  or  Germany.  Therefore 
the  crushing  and  partitioning  of  Russia  were  as 
essential  to  the  grandiose  Pan-German  scheme 
fathered  by  the  Kaiser  as  it  was  to  the  Austrian 
plan  originated,  or  more  properly  revived,  by 
Aehrenthal  and  fathered  by  the  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand.  The  war  was  to  be  brought  about 
by  picking  a  quarrel  with  little  Serbia  and  then 
proceeding  to  crush  her.  This  would,  of  course, 
bring  Russia  to  her  rescue  and  the  real  war  would 
begin.  This  war  would  be  fought  with  Russia, 
France,  and  Serbia  on  one  side,  and  Germany, 
Austria,  Turkey,  and  perhaps  one  of  the  other 
Balkan  States  on  the  other.  Provided  such  a  war 
was  started  before  Russia  recovered  from  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War,  the  outcome  could  not  be  doubted. 
Not  more  than  six  months  after  the  close  of  the 
Russo-Japanese  War  the  Croato-Serb  coalition 
came  into  being.  On  October  4,  1905,  forty 
deputies  of  the  Diet  of  Croatia  met  at  Rieka 
(Fiume)  and  adopted  a  resolution,  since  known 
as  the  Fiume  Resolution,  in  which  they  laid  down  as 
a  general  political  axiom  the  following  principle: 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  7 

"Every  nation  has  the  right  to  decide  freely  and 
independently  concerning  its  existence  and  its 
fate."  This  resolution  was  promptly  endorsed 
by  the  twenty-six  Serb  deputies  of  Croatia,  meet- 
ing on  October  16, 1905,  at  Zadar  (Zara),  Dalmatia. 
The  soul  of  this  movement  was  the  Dalmatian  pa- 
triot, Franjo  Supilo. 

Thus  came  to  a  close  the  long  artificially  stim- 
ulated hostility  between  Serb  and  Croat,  and  a 
new  era,  which  menaced  the  intolerant  dominance 
of  the  Austro-Magyar  overlords,  dawned.  The 
Fiume  Resolution  created  almost  a  panic  of  wrath- 
ful alarm  at  the  Court  and  among  the  great  nobles 
and  the  land  junkers.  This  furnished  fuel  to 
Aehrenthal's  fire.  The  war  that  he  planned  was 
to  cure  all  internal  ills  and  to  keep  the  subject 
peoples  where  they  belonged — under  the  heels 
of  the  ruling  Germans  of  Austria  and  Magyars 
of  Hungary. 

Before  he  had  been  in  office  two  months  Aeh- 
renthal  ordered  me  transferred  from  the  Odessa 
Consulate  to  that  of  Bclgi'ade,  the  capital  of  Serbia. 
As  a  Jugoslav,  speaking  Serbian  and  intimately 
acquainted  with  both  Russian  and  Balkan  con- 
ditions, he  apparently  thought  I  could  be  useful 
to  him  in  connection  with  his  new  Russian  and 
Balkan  policies.  Accordingly,  I  was  appointed 
Vice-Consul  at  Belgrade.  It  was  my  eighth  post; 
I  had  served  previously  In  Vienna,  then  Paris, 
Berhn,  Bucharest,  Jassy,  Constanza,  and  Odessa. 


8  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

It  was  a  bitterly  cold  morning  of  mid-winter 
when  I  left  my  mountain  valley  home  in  Styria 
in  the  Austrian  Alps  to  go  to  my  new  post.  It  was 
still  dark  as  my  sled  found  its  way  through  the 
narrow  gorges  along  the  river,  but  when  we  came 
out  into  the  broad  valleys  the  Alps  in  their  white 
mantle  of  snow  lay  before  us,  serene  and  majestic. 
I  took  the  train  from  the  old  Roman  town  of 
Claudia  Celeja,  named  for  the  Emperor  Claudius 
and  long  the  home  of  the  redoubtable  Counts  of 
Celje,  to  go  through  Zagreb  by  the  shortest  route 
to  Belgrade.  My  journey  through  the  realms 
of  Francis  Joseph  gave  me  ample  time  for  reflec- 
tion. Before  reaching  my  destination  I  had  to 
change  trains  no  less  than  nine  times.  It  was  part 
of  the  policy  of  the  Hungarian  Government  toward 
the  Slavic  province  of  Croatia  to  allow  no  through 
trains  and  to  oblige  all  lines  to  converge  in  Buda- 
pest. All  travellers  from  Trieste,  Fiume,  Dalmatia, 
or  Bosnia,  or  in  fact  from  any  point  in  the  southwest- 
ern portions  of  the  monarchy,  were  hence  obliged 
to  go  first  to  Budapest,  no  matter  what  their  desti- 
nation. In  my  case  this  was  very  much  as  it  would 
be  had  one  to  go  first  to  Chicago  in  order  to  reach 
New  York  from  Washington,  D.  C.  Half  frozen 
though  I  was  from  long  hours  on  ill-heated  trains, 
as  I  approached  my  destination  I  was  thrilled  as 
always  at  the  prospect  of  new  problems  to  face 
and  a  new  country  to  learn.  Before  leaving  Russia 
I  had  discovered  that  our  new  government  had 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  9 

already  begun  to  sow  there  the  seeds  of  sedition 
and  to  add  fuel  to  the  revolutionary  flames.  I 
felt  that  our  policy  in  Serbia  would  be  at  least  as 
unfriendly. 

I  reflected  with  whimsical  amusement  that,  were 
our  Foreign  Office  familiar  with  the  events  of  my 
early  youth  and  training  and  the  lasting  impres- 
sions they  had  made  upon  my  mind  and  heart, 
they  might  not  have  been  so  sure  of  my  suitability 
for  this  particular  mission  at  this  critical  time. 

As  I  reviewed  my  early  youth  I  realized  that 
there  were  three  events  in  particular  which  had 
made  a  lasting  impression  upon  my  life.  The 
first  was  a  small  Sokol  tournament  in  a  little 
village  in  southern  Styria,  the  birthplace  of  my 
mother.  The  Sokol  is  a  society  among  the  South- 
ern or  Jugoslavs  which  seeks  to  stimulate  national 
pride  and  consciousness  by  means  of  athletic 
contests.  As  a  boy  I  came  to  see  this  tournament 
on  foot  over  mountain  passes,  and  through  pine 
forests.  I  was  never  so  thrilled  as  when  I  saw  my 
eldest  brother  march  with  the  Sokols  dressed  as 
they  were  in  snugly  fitting  drab  uniforms,  the  coat 
hanging  loosely  over  the  shoulder  to  show  the  red 
shirt  })eneath.  They  went  through  their  exercises 
on  the  drill  ground  with  a  skill  and  rhythm  that 
would  have  done  credit  to  the  best-drilled  soldiers. 
When  I  heard  the  speaker  at  the  end  of  the  meet 
say  that  all,  old  and  young,  must  stand  together 
to  defend  the  sacred  rights  of  our  Slav  nation,  I 


10  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

was  moved  to  tears.  From  that  time  I  realized 
that  I  belonged  to  an  oppressed  people,  and  to  do 
my  part  in  the  winning  of  our  national  rights  has 
been  the  task  nearest  to  my  heart  ever  since. 

The  second  event  which  lastingly  impressed  me 
was  the  reading  of  a  novel  given  me  by  my  mother 
and  written  by  her  brother.  Dr.  Joseph  Vosnjak. 
It  was  called:  "Pobratimi,"  that  is,  "Brothers" — 
not  brothers  by  blood  but  brothers  bound  together 
by  a  secret  oath  performed  by  mixing  their  blood 
and  solemnly  swearing  to  stand  together  through- 
out life  for  the  highest  ideals  of  their  people  and 
against  all  oppressors.  The  book  depicted  the  epic 
struggle  of  my  race  against  the  German  oppressors 
and  made  a  profound  impression  upon  me. 

The  third  such  event  occurred  when  my 
father  brought  me  to  Celje,  farther  down  the 
river  on  which  was  my  birthplace,  to  enter  the 
gymnasium  there.  Perched  like  an  eagle's  nest 
upon  a  high  cliff  overlooking  the  town  were  the 
ruins  of  the  mediaeval  castle  of  the  once-mighty 
Coimts  of  Celje,  the  battlements  of  which  had  for 
centuries  stood  as  a  rampart  against  Turks  and 
Germans  alike.  This  was  a  wonderful,  an  inspir- 
ing sight  to  a  mountain  boy,  but  oh!  the  chagrin 
and  disappointment  when  we  were  told  that  I  could 
not  enter  the  school  because  I  did  not  know  German, 
and  the  Government  did  not  allow  higher  education 
in  the  Slovene  language!  Keenly  as  we  felt  our 
impotence  my  father  and  I  were  never  drawn  more 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  11 

closely  together  than  when  this  blow  fell  upon  us. 
Such  is,  I  believe,  the  effect  of  oppression  the  world 
over.  These  were  the  three  decisive  events  of  my 
early  youth. 

After  losing  a  year  in  learning  German  I  finally 
entered  the  gymnasium.  When  I  learned  that 
the  Slavs  in  Austria  were  numerically  superior 
to  the  Germans  and  Magyars  and  the  other  races, 
and  that  beyond  our  borders  they  occupied  a 
territory  extending  from  the  Adriatic  to  the  Black 
Sea,  from  East  Germany  to  the  Pacific,  and  when 
I  heard  of  our  long  record  of  fine  achievement, 
both  in  peace  and  war,  my  blood  boiled  at  the 
insulting  effrontery  of  the  Germans  and  Magyars 
in  always  referring  to  us  as  an  inferior  race.  WTien 
the  school  authorities  discovered  that  we  students 
of  the  so-called  inferior  race  had  formed  a  secret 
-alliance  of  opposition  and  defiance  toward  all  who 
slighted  and  belittled  our  race,  and  that  we  were 
learning  Russian  in  secret,  they  notified  a  number 
of  us  that  our  presence  was  no  longer  desired. 
Thus,  in  the  eighth  year  of  my  studies,  I  was  obliged 
to  leave.  Only  through  the  insistence  of  my  uncle, 
the  author  of  "Pobratimi,"  was  I  finally  allowed 
to  take  the  matura,  or  final  examinations,  in  a 
Slovene  town  of  Carniola. 

In  1895  I  entered  the  University  of  Graz  to 
study  law.  Shortly  thereafter,  by  order  of  the 
Vice-Governor,  I  was  dragged  from  my  studies  and 
pressed  into  the  army  as  a  private  to  serve  for 


n  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

three  years.  My  education  entitled  me  to  military 
service  of  one  year  only  and  after  that  to  enter  the 
school  for  reserve  oflScers.  Another  uncle,  Michael 
Vosnjak,  for  twenty  years  a  member  of  Parliament 
and  the  organizer  of  the  great  cooperative  banking 
system  of  Slovenia,  vigorously  intervened  in  my 
behalf  and  finally  my  military  rights  were  grudg- 
ingly conceded  by  the  Minister  of  War. 

I  passed  my  year  of  military  service  in  Prague  at 
the  time  of  the  Czecho-Slav  Ethnographical  Expo- 
sition. This  is  the  city  which  Alexander  Grimm,  the 
great  Franco-German  traveller,  called  the  third  most 
beautiful  city  in  the  world.  It  was  a  never-ending 
delight  to  wander  through  the  narrow,  crooked 
streets  of  this  picturesque  Slav  city  on  the  Vltava 
in  the  heart  of  Bohemia  and  of  Europe.  Its 
palaces  overlooked  the  magnificent  park  and  the 
ancient  Royal  Palace  stood  like  a  citadel  on  the 
top  of  a  steep  hill  looking  down  over  the  hundreds 
of  church  spires  of  the  old  city.  The  magnificent 
parades  of  the  Sokols  and  their  tournaments  on  the 
heights  of  Belvedere  where  12,000  of  them  went 
through  their  exercises  with  the  unity  of  one  man, 
the  never-ending  pageants  of  the  Exposition  in 
the  park,  the  multifold  art  treasures  displayed, 
and  the  Slavic  plays  given  in  the  great  National 
Theatre,  were  a  constant  source  of  inspiration 
and  delight  to  my  thirsty  soul.  Here  I  seemed  to 
see  a  whole  people  rising  like  a  phoenix  from  its 
ashes — a  people  filled  with  vitality  and  energy 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  13 

and  the  radiant  enthusiasm  of  youth  but  in  con- 
stant grapple  with  the  omnipresent  and  sinister 
forces  of  a  hostile  government. 

My  military  year  finished  I  returned  to  the 
University  of  Graz  in  Styria.  But  here  the  Ger- 
manized student  life  with  its  copious  beer  drinking, 
its  sabre  duels,  and  its  shallowness,  combined. with 
the  insufferable  arrogance  of  the  German  students, 
finally  so  disgusted  me  that  I  left.  I  resolved  to 
leave  the  Austrian  moral  and  intellectual  prison 
and  go  out  into  the  great  world.  As  the  best  con- 
trast to  that  which  I  was  seeking  to  escape  I  first 
went  to  Paris,  the  ville  lumiere,  and  established 
myself  in  the  Quartier  Latin  to  study  law  and 
political  economy  at  the  Sorbonne  and  to  seek  in 
the  art  museums  relaxation  from  my  more  sombre 
studies.  It  was  in  Paris  that  I  came  to  realize 
that  collaterally  with  the  struggle  between  Slav 
and  Teuton  the  furrows  were  ever  being  ploughed 
deeper  between  Teuton  and  Gaul. 

I^p  to  this  time  educated  exclusively  in  German 
schools  and  instigated  to  despise  the  very  name 
of  my  Slav  parents  I  felt  that  here  in  Paris  I  had 
completely  broken  the  chains  which  the  German 
drill  masters  had  tried  to  fasten  upon  me  for  life. 
I  had  already  learned  to  read  the  Slavonic  Bible 
and  I  had  learned  the  old  Cyrillic  characters.  I 
had  also,  in  violation  of  the  law,  mastered  Russian. 
I  procured  some  Russian  books  directly  from  St. 
Petersburg  and  took  them  home  to  read  during 


14  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

my  vacations.  I  read  the  voluminous  "History 
of  the  Russian  Empire"  by  Karamzin,  the  fables 
of  Krilov,  and  the  writings  of  Tolstoi,  the  great 
Slav  apostle  of  peace.  My  Russian  studies  brought 
me  some  of  the  greatest  revelations  of  my  life. 
I  was  thrilled  to  discover  how  closely  related  was 
our  Slovene  language,  spoken  by  only  one  and  a 
half  million  people,  to  the  tongue  of  the  great  Slav 
Empire.  Although  our  ancestors  had  left  Russia 
sixteen  hundred  years  before  our  language  had  re- 
mained faithful  in  essentials  to  the  parent  tongue. 
Thrilling  with  the  inspiration  of  Tolstoi's  teachings 
of  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man  I  finally  re- 
turned to  my  mountain-valley  home  in  the  won- 
drous Alpine  world.  Trout  fishing  in  the  deep 
gorges  with  their  roaring  rivers,  chamois  hunting 
on  the  rugged  slopes  of  the  Styrian  Alps,  and 
all  kinds  of  mountaineering  filled  my  carefree 
days  for  some  months.  I  have  often  wondered 
why  I  ever  left  my  mountain  paradise  to  go  into 
the  heart-breaking  welter  and  tumult  of  a  diplo- 
matic career.  Perhaps  a  pair  of  beautiful  Oriental 
eyes  was  responsible.  They  belonged  to  a  cousin, 
of  about  my  own  age,  who  had  married  an 
Austrian  diplomat  and  to  whom  all  doors  were 
open  in  the  great  world  of  politics  and  diplomacy. 
She  aroused  my  ambition  and  arranged  for  my 
entrance  into  the  foreign  service.  I  decided  to 
finish  my  law  studies  and  then  to  take  the  exam- 
inations for  the  service  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  15 

Affairs.  I  was  the  more  ready  to  make  this  deci- 
sion because  some  of  our  leading  racial  leaders, 
my  uncles  among  them,  had  recently  decided  that 
we  Slavs  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  should  enter 
governmental  service  when  and  where  possible 
in  order  that  we  might  have  some  voice  at  least 
in  sharing  and  executing  the  policies  of  the  govern- 
ment under  which  we  were  obliged  to  live.  Thus 
it  came  about  that  I  who  had  from  childhood 
up  felt  an  ever-growing  repugnance  to  the  govern- 
ment to  which  we  were  unhappily  subject  became 
a  servant  of  that  government.  These  reflections 
and  many  more  passed  through  my  mind  as  I 
approached  the  Serbian  capital  and  realized  that 
I  was  about  to  step  into  the  centre  of  momentous 
events  which  might  ultimately  affect  the  whole 
world  and  the  course  of  history. 

Arriving  in  Belgrade  I  found  the  Legation  in 
charge  of  a  baron  who  had  grown  old  in  the  service 
of  His  Majesty,  but  the  real  soul  of  the  Legation 
was  Major  of  the  General  Staff  Joseph  Pomian- 
kowski,  a  Galician  Pole,  and  one  of  the  most 
zealous  and  unscrupulous  "privileged"  spies  I 
ever  met  in  the  service.  He  was  commonly  called 
*'Pomy."  He  seemed  to  be  omnipresent  and  om- 
nipotent, giving  orders  to  everybody,  including 
even  his  nominal  chief.  He  was  directing  the  policy 
of  the  Legation,  inspiring  its  reports,  and  generally 
trying  to  make  himself  indispensable  to  his  real 
masters,  the  General  Staff.     He  radiated  health. 


16  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

energy,  and  aggressiveness,  and  was  constantly  in- 
structing military  and  political  spies  and  receiv- 
ing their  depositions.  I  soon  found  out  indeed 
that  our  Consulate,  also  dominated  by  "Pomy," 
instead  of  devoting  itself  to  its  legitimate  work 
of  studying  and  bettering  commercial  relations, 
was  deeply  engaged  in  a  feverish  search  for  Pan- 
Serb  conspiracies  and  conspirators. 

One  afternoon,  after  I  had  been  installed  in  my 
new  office.  Consul  Corossacz,  who  was  in  temporary 
charge  of  the  office,  a  good-natured,  inoffensive 
man,  opened  the  safe  and  showed  me  a  large 
photographic  plate.  On  examining  it  I  saw  that 
it  was  an  autograph  letter  from  Prince  Nicholas 
of  Montenegro  to  King  Peter  of  Serbia,  in  which 
a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  between  the  two 
countries  was  proposed.  I  knew  that  such  an 
alliance  was  one  of  the  standing  bugaboos  of  our 
government.  Upon  my  expressing  some  doubt 
as  to  the  authenticity  of  this  letter  the  Consul 
said  with  a  good-natured  laugh:  "You  are  right. 
This  is  one  of  the  documents  which  the  Ministry 
of  Foreign  Affairs  found  upon  examination  to  be 
not  genuine.  We  paid  2,000  dinars  [francs]  for 
it.  We  bought  it  from  a  former  chef  of  the  royal 
household  who  had  been  dismissed.  He  allow^ed 
us  to  photograph  the  letter  and  then  restore  it  to 
him  in  order  that  it  might  he  put  back  on  King 
Peter's  desk  whence,  as  he  alleged,  he  had  pur- 
loined it.     Well,  for  once  we  were  taken  in,  but 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  17 

we  will  make  many  good  bargains  to  offset  this 
bad  one." 

I  handed  the  plate  back  to  the  Consul  with  a 
feeling  of  revulsion.  Buying  alleged  royal  letters 
from  discharged  chefs  was  to  me  a  new  and  shock- 
ing kind  of  diplomacy  and  I  was  further  disgusted 
to  see  that  the  personally  inoffensive  Consul  re- 
garded it  as  both  a  natural  and  legitimate  transaction. 
I  was  soon  to  find  that  a  swarm  of  individuals 
of  the  same  character  as  this  discharged  servant 
were  doing  a  flourishing  business  with  our  office 
at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayers  of  Austria-Hungary. 

Not  long  after  my  arrival  as  Vice-Consul  in 
Belgrade  an  individual  slunk  into  the  back  door 
of  that  little  capital  city  who  was  to  play  a  role 
in  international  affairs  as  important  as  he  was 
himself  insignificant.  On  his  first  arrival  in  Serbia 
he  was,  to  use  a  bit  of  expressive  American  slang, 
"down  and  out." 

Shortly  after  his  arrival  in  Belgrade  he  publislied 
a  pamphlet  on  the  Jesuits  of  Bosnia  in  which  he 
denounced  the  activities  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Sarajevo  and  the  whole  Roman  Catholic  propa- 
ganda. He  represented  himself  as  a  Serb  who  h.id 
been  ruined  and  persecuted  by  our  government 
because  of  his  pitiless  exposure  of  Jesuitical  plots. 
On  the  strength  of  this  pamphlet  and  these  repre- 
sentations, George  Nastic,  whose  name  was  to 
become  scandalously  linked  with  the  leading 
diplomats   of   the   Dual   Monarchy,   wormed   his 


18  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

way  into  the  students'  club  in  Belgrade  known 
as  the  Slovenski  Jug,  and  had  made  himself  per- 
fectly at  home  there  by  the  time  Count  Forgach, 
the  new  Austro-Hungarian  Minister,  arrived  in 
Belgrade,  in  the  summer  of  1907. 

On  July  22,  1908,  a  cataclysm  occurred  in  the 
Turkish  Empire  which  greatly  alarmed  our  govern- 
ment. On  that  day  the  standard  of  revolt  was 
raised  by  the  Young  Turk  Party  in  Macedonia. 
The  Young  Turks  announced  that  as  soon  as  they 
had  overthrown  the  bloody  and  bigoted  rule  of 
Abdul  Hamid  they  would  open  a  parliament  at 
Constantinople  to  which  all  the  nationalities  of 
the  empire  would  be  invited  to  send  representa- 
tives and  in  which  all  should  have  equal  rights. 
This  announced  intention  to  turn  the  Turkish 
Empire  from  a  shambles  into  a  happy  family  was 
for  the  moment  accepted  at  its  face  value  and  hence 
aroused  great  enthusiasm  among  the  polyglot 
peoples  of  the  realm. 

But  this  feeling  was  not  shared  by  the  Austrian 
Government.  One  of  the  many  quarrel-fomenting 
and  war-breeding  provisions  of  the  Congress  of 
Berlin  of  1878  was  that  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
should  be  temporarily  occupied  by  Austria-Hun- 
gary while  remaining  under  the  suzerainty  of  the 
Sultan.  As  an  inevitable  result,  the  actual  con- 
trol of  those  provinces  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
Emperor  of  Austria,  while  the  Sultan  of  Turkey 
exercised  a  nominal  control.     Our  statesmen  were 


AUSTRO  GERMAN-INTRIGUE  19 

now  greatly  alarmed  lest  these  provinces  should  be 
absorbed  by  a  reformed  and  democratized  Turk- 
ish Empire  and  that  they  might  thus  be  forestalled 
in  their  ultimate  intention  to  seize  the  provinces 
and  make  them  integral  parts  of  our  empire. 
Whether  the  Young  Turks  knew  of  Austria's  de- 
signs on  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  and  hastened 
their  revolution  in  order  to  forestall  them  I  do 
not  know,  but  it  is  altogether  probable  that  such 
was  the  case.  I  do  know,  however,  that  our  diplo- 
macy became  almost  hysterical  in  its  redoubled 
zeal  to  demonstrate  that  the  annexation  of  these 
provinces,  in  violation  of  international  law  and 
treaty  rights,  had  become  necessary  to  the  safety 
and  integrity  of  our  monarchy. 

In  May,  1908, 1  was  ordered  to  Nish,  the  former 
capital  of  Serbia  and  situated  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  country,  to  take  charge  of  the  Consulate.  On 
July  22d,  the  very  day  the  Young  Turks  started 
their  revolution,  I  was  called  back  to  Belgrade  and 
placed  in  charge  of  the  Consulate  General  there. 

On  arriving  at  Belgrade  I  soon  realized  that 
portentous  events  were  impending.  Some  of  my 
colleagues  freely  expressed  the  opinion  that  we 
were  going  to  create  a  situation  in  the  near  future 
which  would  force  the  annexation  of  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina.  Therefore,  I  was  not  much  sur- 
prised when  I  learned  that  George  Nastif,  whose 
very  existence  I  had  forgotten,  had  issued  a  pamph- 
let purporting  to  expose   his    experiences    as    a 


20  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

member  of  the  Slovenski  Jug,  the  students'  club 
into  which  he  had  forced  his  way,  and  alleging 
that  it  was  in  fact  not  a  students'  club  at  all,  but 
a  revolutionary  society.  Coming,  as  it  did,  on 
the  heels  of  the  startling  events  in  Turkey,  this 
pamphlet  created  a  sensation. 

Nastic  asserted  that  the  club  was  the  chief 
medium  by  which  the  Serbian  Government  fo- 
mented revolution  among  the  southern  Slavs  of 
the  empire.  He  supplied  lurid  details  of  the 
club's  activities.  For  example:  to  further  its 
terrorist  propaganda,  it  had  bombs  made  at  the 
Serbian  military  arsenal  at  Kragujevac.  He  him- 
self, so  he  declared,  had  been  sent  to  the  arsenal 
to  inspect  the  manufacture  of  these  bombs,  and 
they  were  finally  brought  to  Belgrade  and  stored 
in  the  club.  They  were  intended  for  use  on 
Austrian  soil  but  were  finally  diverted  to  another 
purpose  at  which  Nastic  represents  himself  as 
flying  into  a  rage,  leaving  the  club,  and  resolving 
to  expose  the  whole  conspiracy  in  order  to  avenge 
himself  upon  his  companions.  In  September, 
1907,  he  did  in  fact  leave  Belgrade  and  returned 
to  Bosnia. 

Nastic  sought  to  support  these  assertions  by 
some  postal  cards  written  him  from  Brussels  by  a 
member  of  the  club.  The  pamphlet  concluded 
with  an  alleged  reproduction  of  a  document  known 
as  "the  statute  of  organization  for  the  liberation 
of  the  Jugoslavs."    This  "statute"  set  forth  as 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  21 

the  aim  of  the  Jugoslavs  the  attainment  of  national 
unity  through  the  estabhshment  of  a  great  Jugo- 
shiv  Federation  of  RepuhHcs.  To  accompHsh 
this  purpose  a  revolutionary  organization  was  to  be 
developed. 

Nastic  originally  attributed  the  authorship  of 
the  document  to  a  certain  Austrian  Slav  by  the 
name  of  Milan  Pribicevic;  later  to  several  different 
authors;  and  finally  to  the  Serbian  Foreign  Office. 
The  original,  while  repeatedly  called  for,  was  never 
produced,  although  there  was  every  reason  why 
Nastic  should  wish  to  produce  it  and  none  why 
he  should  not. 

By  my  colleagues  in  the  Legation  and  Consulate 
these  "revelations"  were  eagerly  accepted  as  a 
convincing  indictment  of  the  Serbian  dynasty, 
government,  and  people.  By  the  Serbs,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  were  looked  upon  as  an  object 
of  scornful  mirth.  The  idea  that  a  students' 
club  with  a  few  rooms  on  the  main  street  of  a  town 
of  80,000  inhabitants,  and  with  a  reading  room 
open  to  almost  everyone,  should  be  the  headquarters 
of  a  huge  revolutionary  movement  seemed  to  them 
ludicrous. 

As  a  result  of  this  publication,  many  arrests 
were  made  by  the  Austrian  police.  The  first 
in  the  batch  of  "conspirators"  were  two  brothers 
of  the  alleged  author  of  the  statute  for  the  liberation 
of  the  southern  Slavs,  one  a  petty  official  in  a  re- 
mote town  and  the  other  a  teacher  in  the  theologi- 


22  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

cal  seminary  of  the  Serbian  Orthodox  Church. 
They  were  followed  by  six  schoolmasters  of  obscure 
Croatian  villages,  six  petty  merchants,  two  stud- 
ents, two  Serbian  priests,  a  forest  guard,  and  the 
mayor  of  a  small  town.  In  all  thirty-three  people 
were  arrested,  not  one  of  whom  was  a  person  of  any 
prominence.  They  were  taken  in  chains  to  Zagreb, 
thrown  into  prison,  forced  to  associate  with  crim- 
inals of  the  lowest  type,  and  refused  the  opportun- 
ity to  communicate  with  counsel. 

Now  that  George  Nastic  had  become  a  notorious 
character,  I  resolved  to  acquaint  myself  more 
fully  with  his  career  and  connections.  I  already 
knew  that  he  was  connected  with  our  secret  police 
in  Vienna,  Sarajevo,  and  Zagreb.  I  soon  dis- 
covered that  he  was  also  closely  associated  with 
certain  correspondents  of  German  and  Austro- 
German  papers  who  had  been  evicted  from  Serbian 
soil  because  of  their  slanderous  attacks  upon  the 
Serbian  Government.  After  office  hours  in  the 
beautiful  summer  days  of  1908  I  often  went  by 
boat  up  the  Danube  to  Zemun,  a  Croatian  town 
opposite  Belgrade.  Usually  a  party  of  us,  from 
the  German  and  Italian  legations,  as  well  as  our 
own,  went  together.  On  these  trips  I  frequently 
met  a  Jewish  newspaper  correspondent  by  the 
name  of  Steinhardt.  He  was  one  of  the  newspaper 
men  who  had  been  expelled  from  Belgrade  and 
he  now  glowered  across  the  river  and  brooded 
vengeance.     I   asked   him,  banteringly,  one  day 


austro-ger:man  intrigue        23 

where  he  picked  up  his  amazing  tales  of  Serbian 
affairs.  "All  things,"  he  replied,  pointing  to 
his  head,  "originate  here,  and  I  will  teach  the 
Serbian  police  that  on  Austrian  soil  they  cannot 
reach  me."  Knowing  that  Nastic  was  a  friend 
of  his,  I  asked  him  if  Nastic  got  his  facts  from  the 
same  source,  to  which  he  replied  in  the  affirmative. 
My  conversations  with  this  resourceful  yellow 
journalist  of  the  East  led  me  to  believe  that  Nas- 
tic received  from  him  at  least  the  inspiration  for 
his  sensational  pamphlet. 

Toward  the  end  of  September  I  was  ordered 
back  to  Nish.  There  I  had  begun  to  renew  my 
many  pleasant  acquaintances  among  the  officials 
and  civilians  of  the  city  when  on  October  7, 
1908,  the  news  that  Austria  had  formally  annexed 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  fell  like  a  bomb  into  the 
quiet  old  city.  Although  they  knew  that  I  sym- 
pathized with  them,  my  Serbian  friends  avoided 
me.  It  was  generally  felt  among  the  Serbs  that 
this  was  only  the  first  step  leading  to  events  much 
more  important  and  more  tragic.  This  fear  was 
increased  by  the  fulminations  of  the  German  and 
Magyar  press,  which  now  became  more  vitupera- 
tive than  ever  in  their  attacks  upon  the  Serbian 
dynasty,  government,  and  people.  The  Austrians 
took  it  for  granted  that  Serbia's  resentment  would 
lead  to  war,  and  the  Austrian  Government  pro- 
ceeded with  military  preparations  based  upon 
that  assumption. 


24  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

The  annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
brought  Aehrenthal  an  honour  which  he  had  long 
coveted.  The  Emperor  raised  him  from  Baron 
to  Count  and  permitted  him  to  drop  Lexa,  the  name 
of  his  Jewish  father,  of  which  he  was  not  proud. 
In  spite  of  this  reward,  Aehrenthal  winced  under 
the  all-but-universal  condemnation  of  his  lawless 
act  throughout  the  world.  Germany  alone  among 
the  nations  at  once  recognized  and  approved  his  act. 
This  recognition  had  little  weight  internationally 
as  everyone  knew  that  it  was  merely  Germany's 
necessary  repayment  in  kind  for  Austria's  con- 
donation of  the  Kaiser's  arbitrariness  in  the  Moroc- 
can affair.  Aehrenthal  craved  justification  for 
his  act,  or  at  any  rate  the  appearance  of  justifica- 
tion. He  wanted  to  impress  the  public,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  that  the  annexation  was  es- 
sential to  the  protection  of  the  empire.  All  the 
subsequent  feverish  activit  es  of  the  Ballplatz, 
through  the  medium  of  its  "literary"  or  press 
bureau,  to  prove  Serbia's  guilt  in  anti-Austrian 
plots  were  justified  on  the  same  ground.  Aehren-i 
thal's  Magyar  colleagues  were  alarmed  by  the 
report  that  both  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand, 
the  heir  to  the  throne,  and  even  the  old  emperor 
himself,  were  disposed  to  look  with  some  favour 
upon  the  Trialism  programme  as  a  possible  cure  for 
the  Dual  Monarchy's  chronic  disorders  and  wanted 
to  frighten  them  away  from  the  plan  by  some 
dramatic  demonstration  of  the  Pan-Serb  menace. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  25 

Trialism  contemplated  the  creation  of  an  au- 
tonomous southern  Slav  state  which  should  be 
linked  to  the  Vienna  Government  very  much  as 
was  Hungary.  Thus  would  the  Dual  Monarchy 
be  changed  to  a  Triple  Monarchy.  This  plan 
was  very  repellent  to  the  Magyars  of  Hungary 
because  it  would  end  their  power  to  oppress  and 
exploit  the  Slavs  and  the  other  subject  races. 
Subsequent  events  indicated  that  both  Francis 
Joseph  and  his  heir  were  as  hostile  to  this  plan 
as  the  great  Magyar  junkers  themselves.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  they  allowed  their  power- 
ful and  difficult  Magyar  subjects  to  believe  that 
they  favoured  Trialism  in  order  that  they  might 
use  it  as  a  club  over  their  heads. 

On  November  4,  1908,  Emperor  William  ar- 
rived at  Eckartsau  as  hunting  guest  of  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand.  In  the  stillness  of  this  Austrian 
hunting  castle,  situated  on  a  branch  of  the  Danube 
below  Vienna  (the  abode  of  ex-Emperor  Charles, 
the  last  of  the  Hapsburgs  before  he  went  to  Switzer- 
land), an  agreement  was  reached  for  common  ac- 
tion between  Austria  and  Germany.  The  '"critical 
days"  for  Europe  in  this  first  crisis  were  in  Decem- 
ber, 1908,  and  also,  as  will  be  later  seen,  at  the  end 
of  March,  1909. 

By  November,  1908,  our  preparations  for  war 
with  Serbia  were  completed  and  I  daily  expected 
an  order  from  the  Legation  to  destroy  all  the  evi- 
dences of  the  secret  activities  of  my  predecessors 


26  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

and  to  leave  Nish  and  Serbia  by  the  shortest  route 
and  cross  into  Bulgaria.  At  this  time  I  resolved 
to  go  to  Belgrade  and  find  out  how  matters  stood 
at  headquarters.  On  my  arrival  I  called  upon  the 
then  Charge  d'Affaires,  Otto  Franz,  the  Minister, 
Count  Forgach,  being  absent.  He  greeted  me 
with  an  outburst  of  wrath  and  bitterly  reproached 
me  for  leaving  my  post  at  a  time  when  our  ultima- 
tum to  Serbia  was  expected  hourly.  I  told  him 
that  I  did  not  regard  war  as  imminent  unless  our 
diplomacy  were  so  unwise  as  deliberately  to  force 
it.  I  assured  him  that  the  so-called  Pan-Serb 
peril  was  a  nightmare  conjured  out  of  nothing 
more  real  than  the  distraught  imaginations  of  our 
diplomats.  I  pointed  out  to  him  the  absurdity 
of  little  Serbia  being  dangerous  to  our  great  empire 
— the  second  strongest  military  power  in  the  world. 
He  violently  repudiated  my  assertions  and  vehe- 
mently protested  that  Serbia  would  always  imperil 
Austria's  very  existence  until  she  was  humbled 
and  taught  a  lesson.  He  went  on  to  say  that 
Serbia  was  deliberately  corrupting  the  Jugoslav 
leaders,  especially  those  of  Dalmatia,  Croatia, 
and  Bosnia.  I  retorted  that  as  a  Jugoslav  I 
resented  these  accusations  against  my  racial  kins- 
men and  that  he  well  knew  that  there  was  no  valid 
evidence  with  which  to  support  them.  He  replied 
heatedly:  *'0n  the  contrary,  we  already  have  the 
proofs  in  our  hands.  We  know  how  much  each 
Jugoslav  leader  and  each  member  of  the  Croatian 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  27 

Diet  has  received  for  his  support  of  the  Croato- 
Serb  coaHtion  against  us. 

"You  may  have  the  names  of  these  men  and 
the  amounts  paid  to  each  one,  but  I  tell  you  that 
your  so-called  proofs  for  which  we  have  paid  so 
much  of  the  taxpayers'  money  are  nothing  but 
clumsy  forgeries.  As  you  know,  some  of  the 
documents  we  have  purchased  have  already  been 
repudiated  as  forgeries  by  our  own  Ministry  of 
Foreign  Affairs." 

The  next  day  I  was  peremptorily  ordered  back 
to  Nishj  but  before  leaving  I  had  opportunity 
to  observe  the  frantic  efforts  of  our  legation  to 
gather  material  which  should  place  on  the  shoulders 
of  little  Serbia  the  responsibility  for  the  war  which 
was  now  assumed  to  be  imminent  and  inevitable. 
A  confidant  of  one  of  the  attaches  told  me  that 
all  the  files  of  the  Legation  were  being  packed  in 
readiness  to  be  sent,  some  of  them  across  the 
Danube  into  our  territory  and  others  to  the  German 
Legation.  One  of  the  Legation  secretaries  told 
me  that  they  had  been  working  nearly  twenty- 
three  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four  for  several  days. 
Our  new  military  attache.  Major  Tanczos,  was 
feverishly  engrossed  in  gathering  together  through 
our  spies,  both  military  and  civil,  the  final  military 
data  about  the  Serbian  territory  which  he  believed 
our  armies  were  soon  to  occupy. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Second  Attempt  of  Austro-German  Di- 
plomacy TO  Precipitate  European  War,  1909 

AND   how   both    war   PLOTS   WERE    UNMASKED 

BESIDES  preparing  public  opinion  in  Aus- 
tria-Hungary for  war  against  Serbia  and 
Russia,  our  diplomacy  tried  to  inflame 
Serbian  public  opinion  against  us.  Repeated  at- 
tempts were  made  to  incite  the  Serbs  to  some  rash 
act  which  would  serve  as  a  pretext  for  war.  De- 
spite all  such  efforts  the  Serbs  kept  their  heads  and 
refused  to  furnish  us  with  the  desired  pretext  for  a 
declaration  of  war.  The  two  pillars  in  this  cam- 
paign to  arouse  the  war  spirit  in  both  countries 
were  the  *' Literary  Section"  or  Press  Bureau  of 
the  Foreign  Office  in  Vienna  and  our  legation  in 
Belgrade.  The  latter  furnished  the  material  and 
the  former  skilfully  disseminated  it  among  the 
press  organs  controlled  by  the  Ballplatz.  It  was  in 
the  midst  of  such  stirring  scenes  and  events  that  I 
returned  heavy  hearted  to  my  post  in  Nish  where  I 
was  retained  but  a  short  time  before  being  recalled 
to  my  former  position  in  Belgrade. 
To  stimulate  the  war  fever  in  Austria,  the  Ball- 

28 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  29 

platz  brought  forward  charges  of  a  widespread  Pan- 
Serb  conspiracy.  Numbers  of  obscure  individuals 
were  arrested.  In  January,  1909,  I  learned  that 
fifty -eight  Serbs  awaited  trial  for  high  treason 
in  the  prison  at  Zagreb.  It  was  not  until  the  mid- 
dle of  January,  nine  months  after  llie  arrest  and  im- 
prisonment of  the  first  prisoners,  that  they  were 
indicted.  And  it  was  not  until  March  3d  that 
their  trial  began  at  Zagreb. 

Meanwhile,  in  February,  1909,  the  Neue  Freie 
Presse  of  Vienna,  the  propaganda  organ  of  Count 
Aehrenthal,  had  printed  as  a  ballon  d'essai  "that 
the  question  of  a  European  mandate  to  Austria- 
Hungary  for  a  *  punitive  expedition'  against  Ser- 
bia or  even  the  occupation  of  Serbia  was  under 
consideration  among  the  Great  Powers,  because 
of  the  Serbian  armaments  and  for  other  reasons." 
This  was  to  repeat  Austria's  coup  in  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina  in  1878  which  provinces  were  also 
"temporarily"  occupied  at  the  "request"  of  the 
signatory  powers  of  the  Congress  of  Berlin, 

Moreover,  on  March  Gth,  Count  Forgach,  our 
Minister  to  Serbia,  by  direction  of  Count  Aehren- 
thal, informed  the  Serbian  Government  that  we 
should  refuse  to  lay  the  proposed  Austro-Serbian 
Commercial  Treaty  before  the  Parliaments  of 
the  Dual  Monarchy  for  ratification  unless  their 
attitude  toward  us  was  immediately  and  radically 
changed.  In  the  meantime,  we  had  massed  200,000 
troops  on  the  Bosnian  border.     Count  Aehrenthal 


30  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

notified  our  Belgrade  office  that  five  high  officers 
of  the  General  Staff  had  been  sent  into  Serbia  on 
"special  mission."  Their  real  names  and  fictitious 
names  were  given  in  case  these  spies  should  be 
in  need  of  consular  protection. 

At  this  point  Serbia  issued  a  circular  note  to 
the  powers  placing  her  case  in  their  hands  and 
requesting  that  representatives  of  the  powers 
investigate  the  relations  between  Austria-Hungary 
and  Serbia  and  report  upon  them.  She  expressed 
her  willingness  that  Austrian  representatives  should 
be  present  and  should  have  access  to  all  the  evi- 
dence, besides  offering  their  own  evidence.  She 
also  renounced  in  advance  any  indemnity  in  case 
it  should  be  found  that  she  had  been  wronged  by 
Austria-Hungary . 

In  the  meantime,  Count  Forgach  feverishly 
awaited  an  ultimatum  from  Count  Aehrenthal 
and  countless  cipher  telegrams  passed  between 
them.  At  this  critical  time  I  was  suddenly  re- 
called from  my  Belgrade  post  and  returned  to 
Vienna  to  learn  what  fate  the  Foreign  Office  had 
in  store  for  me.  On  arriving  in  Vienna  I  reported 
at  once  to  Baron  Sonnleithner,  the  head  of  the 
Consular  Department  of  our  Foreign  Office.  After 
greeting  me  with  studied  lack  of  courtesy  he  broke 
out  upon  me  with  the  wrathful  words:  "Politically 
you  have  failed  to  live  up  to  the  expectations  of  the 
Ministry."  On  my  suggesting,  during  the  ensuing 
conversation,  that  I  be  sent  back  to  Russia,  where 


AUSrRO-GERlVIAN  INTRIGUE  31 

I  was  already  so  well  acquainted  with  conditions, 
lie  exploded  with  so  vehement  a  negative  that  I 
realized  that  my  services  in  Slav  countries  were 
no  longer  wanted.  Instead,  he  told  me  to  prepare 
myself  to  sail  for  the  United  States  where  I  would 
be  employed  in  future.  I  spent  the  month  before 
my  departure  for  America  in  watching  at  head- 
quarters the  further  manoeuvres  of  our  diplomats 
to  precipitate  war  against  Serbia  and  Russia. 
Before  the  end  of  the  month,  in  fact,  we  were  to 
present  an  ultimatum  to  Serbia,  and  simultaneously 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  would  send  an  ultimatum  to  Russia 
demanding  the  recognition  of  our  annexation  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina. 

On  March  24,  1909,  I  learned  that  this  long- 
awaited  ultimatum  had  finally  been  sent  to  Count 
Forgach  in  Belgrade.  On  the  same  day  there  ap- 
peared in  the  Vienna  papers  an  interview  with  a 
"high  Austrian  diplomat  in  Belgrade"  (presumably 
Forgach  himself)  in  which  the  diplomat  said  that 
he  expected  the  ultimatum  that  evening  and  that 
it  would  be  presented  the  next  day.  Further,  he 
stated  that  it  might  well  happen  that  there  would 
be  no  declaration  of  war,  just  as  was  the  case  when 
Frederick  the  Great  attacked  Silesia;  and  Japan 
the  Russian  fleet  at  Port  Arthur.  The  interview 
concluded  with  the  following  question  and  answer: 

Correspondent:  "Could  the  departure  of  the 
Minister  be  interpreted  as  equivalent  to  a  declara- 
tion of  war?" 


32  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Diplomat:  "Count  Forgach  might  even  hear 
the  first  shots  fired  while  stepping  over  the  thresh- 
old of  his  palace." 

The  same  day  a  Budapest  paper  said:  "The 
responsible  factors  in  the  monarchy  believe  that 
it  is  both  feasible  and  desirable  to  do  away  with 
Serbia  at  this  time."  And  it  added:  "Such  favour- 
able conditions  for  the  war  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  recur  in  the  future."  Herr  Von  Wekerle, 
the  Hungarian  premier,  declared:  "If  the  mainte- 
nance of  peace  does  not  prove  feasible  at  this  time 
it  is  best  that  the  poison-tongue  of  the  Balkans 
be  pulled  out  at  once.  It  is  by  no  means  advisable 
to  wait  until  the  at-present-weakened  Russia 
sufficiently  regains  her  powers  to  take  the  field 
against  ourselves  and  Germany.  It  is  much 
more  judicious  to  fight  at  once." 

In  the  midst  of  these  breathless  events,  while 
the  Austrian  and  German  armies  were  poised  like 
hawks  awaiting  their  prey  in  Serbia  and  Russia, 
the  astoundingly  disconcerting  news  arrived  on 
March  25,  1909,  that  the  latter  countries  had 
meekly  accepted  the  Austrian  and  German  ulti- 
mata and  had  dutifully  recognized  as  legal  the 
notoriously  illegal  annexation  of  Bosnia  and  Her- 
zegovina. 

Thanks  to  Russia,  the  World  War  had  been 
averted — for  the  time  being.  But  the  crisis  left 
behind  an  incident  destined  to  become  famous — 
or  infamous — in  history.     The  incident  was  the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  33 

suit  for  libel  arising  out  of  the  notorious  "Fried- 
jung  Documents."  Among  the  most  inflammatory 
articles  that  had  appeared  in  the  Austrian  press 
at  the  time  was  one  written  by  Professor  Friedjung, 
the  foremost  living  Austrian  historian.  It  was 
printed  in  the  Vienna  Neue  Freie  Presse  on  the 
day  on  which  the  Austrian  ultimatum  was  de- 
livered in  Belgrade.  In  this  article  Friedjung 
scored  the  "insolent  attitude"  of  Serbia  toward 
the  Dual  Monarchy  and  gave  our  whole  list  of 
grievances  against  Serbia  from  the  time  of  the 
accession  of  her  present  dynasty.  The  main 
accusation  was  that  "Pan-Serbian  conspirators 
were  seeking  to  erect  a  great  Serbian  empire  on 
the  ruins  of  Austrian  and  Turkish  rule.  The 
Croato-Serb  coalition  is  directed  from  Belgrade 
and  large  gifts  of  money  to  influential  Serbs  in 
southern  Hungary  and  Croatia  are  nourishing  the 
alliance  lietween  Croats  and  Serbs." 

In  support  of  these  familiar  accusations,  Doctor 
Friedjung  quoted  a  confidential  report  alleged  to 
have  been  sent  by  Doctor  Spalajkovic,  Serbian 
Under  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  to  Premier 
PaSic,  in  which  he  gave  a  detailed  account  of  his 
meetings  with  a  representative  of  the  Croato-Serb 
coalition  on  Croatian  territory,  opposite  Belgrade. 
This  man,  a  member  of  the  Croatian  Diet,  offered 
in  the  name  of  the  coalition  to  place  five  news- 
papers at  the  disposal  of  the  Serbian  Government 
for   the   modest   sum   of    1^,000   kronen    (about 


34  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

$2,400).  Professor  Fried jung  further  asserted  that 
M.  Supilo,  the  founder  and  head  of  the  coaHtion, 
had  urged  the  Serbian  Premier,  Doctor  Pasic, 
"to  spend  his  summer  hoHdays  on  the  Croatian 
Coast  in  order  to  be  in  touch  with  his  poHtical 
friends."  In  conclusion,  Professor  Friedjung  chal- 
lenged: "Should  any  of  the  heads  of  the  Serbian 
Government  dispute  any  of  these  assertions  they 
would  be  supplied  with  further  details  and  would 
be  given  the  names  of  Croatian  deputies  and  the 
amounts  of  money  paid  to  them  from  the  Serbian 
treasury." 

The  Professor  then  repeated  the  revelations 
made  by  George  Nastic  in  his  pamphlet,  "Finale," 
with  which  we  are  already  familiar.  This  article, 
which  was  entitled:  "Austria-Hungary  and  Serbia," 
exploded  like  a  bomb  not  only  in  Austria-Hungary 
and  Serbia,  but  throughout  Europe  generally. 
It  contained  the  first  concrete  charges  against  the 
Jugoslav  leaders  who  had  been  engaged  in  alleged 
treasonable  relations  with  the  Serbian  Government, 
and  these  charges  were  made  not  by  an  obscure 
and  disreputable  individual  like  Nastic,  but  by 
an  historian  of  international  reputation.  Friedjung 
was  the  author,  among  other  well-known  books, 
of  the  great  work  entitled:  "The  Struggle  for 
Predominance  in  Germany,"  in  which  he  sought 
to  prepare  the  Austrian  Germans  for  the  dominance 
of  Germany  over  Austria,  which  he  rightly  saw 
would  result  gradually  but  inevitably  from  their 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  35 

defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  Prussians  at  Sadowa 
in  1866.  He  was,  in  fact,  the  first  exponent  of  the 
Middle  Europe  idea  which  has  since  been  more  fully 
expounded  by  Naumann,  Rohrbach,  and  others, 
and  the  foundations  for  which  later  seemed  to 
have  been  laid  in  the  World  War  by  the  successes 
of  German  arms  in  the  Near  East.  It  was  known 
also  that  he  bore  the  same  intimate  relation  to  the 
Vienna  Government  as  did  the  great  publicist, 
Maximilian  Harden,  to  that  of  Berlin.  When  it  ap- 
peared that  the  war  was  inevitable,  Professor  Fried- 
jung  was  asked  by  Count  Aehrenthal  to  prepare 
a  series  of  articles  which  would  provide  the  great 
indictment  of  Serbia.  These  articles  were  pre- 
pared from  material  furnished  by  the  "Literary" 
Bureau.  When  in  the  evening  of  March  24th 
Professor  Fried jung  learned  that  Russia  was  not 
going  to  back  up  Serbia,  he  tried  to  withdraw  the 
article  in  question,  but  it  was  too  late. 

Two  days  after  the  publication  of  Professor  Fried- 
jung's  article  two  members  of  the  Croato-Serb 
coalition,  in  a  telegram  to  the  Neiie  Freie  Presse, 
declared  the  Professor's  charges  against  the  coali- 
tion to  be  "pure  inventions"  and  challenged  him 
to  name  the  guilty  persons.  Friedjung  declined 
to  give  the  names,  but  said  that  he  was  ready  to 
face  court  action  and  would  produce  before  the 
court  "proofs  of  his  assertions."  He  added  that 
he  was  fully  competent  to  "distinguish  genuine 
documents   and   historial   sources  from   the  false 


36  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

ones."  At  the  same  time  Messieurs  Supilo,  Pri- 
bicevic,  and  Lukinic  started  suit  for  a  slander 
against  the  Reichspost,  the  organ  of  the  Christian 
Sociahsts,  which  had  made  charges  against  them 
similar  to  those  made  by  Professor  Friedjung. 
Simultaneously  Doctor  Spalajkovic,  the  Serbian 
Under  Secretary,  denied  all  the  charges  which 
Friedjung  had  made  against  him.  Thus  started 
the  second  of  the  famous  so-called  high  treason 
trials,  only  in  this  one,  unlike  the  first,  the  anti- 
Serbs  were  the  defendants. 

Aehrenthal  and  Forgach  realized  that  the  Fried- 
jung charges  were  unable  to  withstand  even  the 
meagre  degree  of  impartial  investigation  which 
an  Austrian  court  in  political  cases  sometimes  af- 
forded. Hence,  through  intermediaries,  they  has- 
tened to  bring  to  bear  all  their  powerful  pressure 
for  an  out-of-court  settlement.  Unfortunately 
for  them,  in  this  case  they  had  brought  their 
charges  against  men  who  were  powerful  even 
though  members  of  despised  and  subject  races. 
As  a  result  their  pressure  was  successfully  resisted 
and  the  to  them  unwelcome  trial  had  to  proceed. 
It  was  constantly  postponed,  but  finallj^  on  the 
ninth  day  of  December,  1909,  in  a  Viennese  court, 
it  opened. 

I  was  already  at  my  new  post  in  America,  serving 
as  Vice-Consul  in  Denver,  Colorado,  when  the 
news  of  the  opening  of  the  great  trial  reached  me. 
I  carefully  examined  the  documents  as  they  were 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  37 

published  in  the  course  of  the  trial  and  found  that 
all  but  two  were  familiar  to  me,  as  they  had  been 
gathered  during  my  service  in  Serbia.  I  found 
also  that  I  had  challenged  the  genuineness  of 
several  of  them  and  had  protested  both  to  Count 
Forgach  and  the  First  Secretary,  Mr.  Franz, 
against  their  use.  Among  the  documents,  further- 
more, there  was  not  one  whose  charges  were  not 
perfectly  familiar  to  me  and  indeed  to  everyone 
who  knew  anything  of  the  relations  between  the 
Jugoslavs  and  the  Budapest  and  Vienna  govern- 
ments. It  all  boiled  down  to  the  old,  old  charge 
that  the  Jugoslav  leaders  of  our  monarchy  were 
in  the  pay  of  the  Serbian  Government  in  their 
efforts  for  unity  among  Croats  and  Serbs  inside 
our  borders. 

In  support  of  his  charges  Professor  Fried jung 
submitted  to  the  court  twenty-four  documents. 
Like  the  Government's  evidence  in  the  former  trial, 
they  were  offered  in  German  translations  and  not 
in  the  original.  Furthermore,  they  were  not  given 
complete,  but  merely  as  fragments.  Of  these 
twenty-four  documents,  nineteen  were  alleged 
minutes  of  the  Slovenski  Jug.  On  these  there 
appeared  six  names.  Of  these  the  three  more  prom- 
inent were  those  of  Professor  Bozidar  Markovic, 
professor  of  criminal  law  at  the  I^niversity  of 
Belgrade,  who  was  president  of  the  club;  a  former 
president  of  the  Serbian  Parliament,  and  a  former 
Minister   of   Education    in    the  Serbian  Cabinet. 


38  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

The  five  remaining  documents  consisted  of:  a 
circular  issued  by  the  Governor-General  of  Croatia; 
the  report  of  Doctor  Spalajkovic  to  the  Premier 
already  referred  to;  a  telegram  of  the  Serbian 
Minister  in  Petrograd;  a  telegram  from  the  Serbian 
Consul  in  Budapest  to  the  Serbian  Foreign  Minister, 
and  a  confidential  order  of  the  Serbian  Foreign 
Office. 

Professor  Fried jung  concluded  his  defence  with 
these  words:  "My  life  work  has  been  historical 
research,  and  thus  my  defence  takes  the  form  of  a 
chapter  in  a  historical  work,  the  history  of  the 
Balkan  problem.  I  have  spoken  to  you  gentlemen 
as  my  judges,  but  at  the  same  time  I  address  my 
fellow  historians,  who  will  also  give  their  verdict  as 
to  whether  in  examining  these  documents  I  have 
acted  critically  and  conscientiously,  sifting  the 
true  from  the  false.  Every  impartial  person  will, 
I  am  sure,  admit  that  I  have  built  upon  the  sure 
foundation  of  reliable  documents,  and  hence  I 
await  with  complete  calm  the  final  verdict  of  the 
jury." 

When  the  Professor  had  finished,  Doctor  Funder, 
the  editor-in-chief  of  the  Reichsposf,  gave  his 
defence.  He  was  more  specific  than  Professor 
Fried  jung  in  referring  to  the  sources  and  authentic- 
ity of  their  documents.  He  said:  "I  know  their 
origin;  in  most  cases  I  know  how  they  were  obtained 
and  how  carefully  their  authenticity  was  tested." 
He  said  finally  that  his  attacks  in  the  Reichspost 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  39 

were  based  mainly  upon  the  report  of  Doctor 
Spalajkovic  to  the  Serbian  premier,  Doctor  Pasic, 
a  photograph  of  the  original  of  which  document 
had  been  shown  to  him  and  to  Professor  Fried jung. 

The  alleged  minutes  of  the  Central  Committee 
of  the  Slovenski  Jug  for  February  26,  1908,  showed 
that  at  a  meeting  held  on  that  day,  6,000  dinars 
(about  $1,200)  was  appropriated  to  be  sent  to 
M.  Supilo,  the  head  of  the  Croato-Serb  coalition, 
to  be  used  by  him  in  the  "impending  elections" 
to  the  Diet  of  the  Triune  Kingdom  in  Croatia. 
The  prosecution  proved  that  the  elections  in 
question  had  taken  place  fourteen  days  before 
this  meeting  was  held  and  this  money  appropriated. 
On  being  presented  with  this  dilemma  Professor 
Fried  jung  said  that  the  money  must  have  been  in- 
tended for  use  in  a  later  election.  He  had  to  aban- 
don this  supposition,  however,  when  it  was  shown 
that  the  resolution  by  which  the  money  was  appro- 
priated stated  that  it  was  to  be  used  to  help  defeat 
the  candidates  of  "The  Frank  and  Starcevic 
party,"  and  that  these  candidates  had  already 
been  defeated  two  weeks  before  the  date  of  the 
alleged  meeting.  Unable  to  parry  this  blow,  the 
learned  historian  contented  himself  with  an  apolo- 
getic admission  that  he  had  failed  to  verify  the 
date  on  which  the  election  actually  occurred. 

At  this  point  in  the  trial  there  appeared,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  eminent  historian,  a  very 
unwelcome  volunteer  witness.     This  was  Professor 


40  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Bozidar  Markovic,  the  president  of  the  Slovenski 
Jug,  the  alleged  revolutionary  society.  Professor 
Markovic  took  the  stand  and  quietly  pointed  out 
to  the  court  that  the  alleged  minutes  of  meetings 
held  October  20th  and  October  21st,  at  which  he 
was  represented  as  presiding,  could  not  be  genuine 
since  he  was  in  Berlin  on  those  dates  attending 
lectures  on  criminal  law.  He  added  that  his  state- 
ment could  readily  be  verified  by  reference  to  the 
Berlin  police,  to  whom  he  had  reported  his  arrival 
and  departure  as  well  as  to  the  hotels  where  he 
stopped  and  where  his  signature  could  be  found 
on  the  registers.  This  statement  caused  great 
excitement  in  the  court  room,  and  the  Berlin  police 
were  at  once  communicated  with.  While  their 
reply  was  awaited,  the  Professor  continued  his 
testimony.  He  stated  that  no  central  committee 
had  ever  existed;  that  no  reports  of  the  secretary's 
activities  were  ever  submitted  to  Prince  George; 
that  no  one  by  the  name  of  Jovanovic,  whose 
name  appeared  in  one  set  of  alleged  minutes  as 
vice-president  of  the  club,  had  ever  held  that 
office;  that  as  he  had  never  been  in  Salonica  in  his 
life  he  could  not  have  there  conferred  with  the 
Young  Turk  Committee  as  he  was  represented 
to  have  done;  that  the  non-existent  central 
committee  of  the  club  could  never  have  conferred 
with  a  guerrilla  band  committee  regarding  the 
outfitting  of  raids  into  Bosnia;  that  one  Milan 
Stefanovic  could  never  have  signed  their  minutes 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  41 

as  secretary  as  they  had  never  had  a  secretary 
of  that  name;  and  that  the  club  was  founded  in 
1902  and  not  in  1904  as  stated. 

While  the  court,  and  indeed  all  Austria,  awaited 
Berlin's  report  on  Professor  Markovic's  alibi,  an- 
other uninvited  and  most  unwelcome  witness 
made  his  appearance.  This  was  Doctor  Spalaj- 
kovic,  Under  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs  of 
Serbia,  and  the  alleged  author  of  some  of  the  docu- 
ments upon  which  the  defence  rested  its  case. 
Taking  up  the  report  headed : ''  Ministry  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  Political  Department,  Belgrade,  June  4, 
1907,  Confidential  No.  3027,"  he  pointed  out  that 
the  total  number  of  confidential  reports  issued 
by  the  department  during  the  entire  year  of  1907 
numbered  only  1991  and  that  the  numbers  used 
between  June  1st  and  June  30th  ran  from  832 
to  1040.  Turning  next  to  the  documents  upon 
which  Doctor  Funder  had  stated  that  he  chiefly 
based  his  charges,  he  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  it  bore  the  number  5703  while  the  highest 
number  actually  used  by  his  department  on  the 
day  in  (|uestion  was  307;  also  that  the  paper  was 
signed  by  a  cashier  as  well  as  himself,  whereas  no 
cashier  had  ever  signed  a  political  report  in  the 
Serbian  Foreign  Office  or  had  ever  been  connected 
with  the  political  department.  He  also  asked  the 
jury  to  note  that  this  report,  dated  June  4,  1907, 
spoke  of  a  certain  loan  which  was  to  be  negotiated 
that  coming  fall,  whereas  he  had  personally  com- 


42  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

pleted  the  negotiations  for  this  loan  in  Geneva 
a  year  previous  to  the  date  of  the  report.  After 
he  had  pointed  out  many  more  such  inconsistencies 
he  expressed  the  readiness  of  the  Serbian  Govern- 
ment to  have  representatives  of  the  Great  Powers, 
including  Austria,  visit  Belgrade  and  personally 
verify  the  accuracy  of  his  statements  and  publish 
their  respective  findings.  x\s  a  parting  shot  Doctor 
Spalajkovic  remarked:  "There  are  clever  forgeries 
and  stupid  forgeries,  and  those  contained  in  the 
Green  Book  of  the  eminent  Austrian  historian 
do  not  belong  to  the  former  category." 

After  the  cross-examination  of  Doctor  Spalaj- 
kovic, and  after  the  court  had  admitted  the  ac- 
curacy of  his  statement  about  the  loan  having  been 
negotiated  a  year  previous  to  the  time  stated  in 
his  alleged  report,  two  perverse  handwriting  ex- 
perts, Austrians  at  that,  both  testified  that  the 
author  of  the  reports,  attributed  to  the  Serbian 
Under  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs,  was  evidently 
a  person  imperfectly  acquainted  both  with  Serbian 
grammar  and  orthography ! 

On  the  21st  of  December  the  eagerly  awaited 
report  from  the  Berlin  police  arrived.  It  estab- 
lished Professor  Markovic's  alibi.  That  two  of 
the  most  important  documents  in  evidence  were 
forgeries  was  now  admitted  not  only  by  the  court 
but  by  the  defendants.  We  wonder  with  what 
degree  of  satisfaction  Doctor  Founder  recalled  at 
this  point  his  remark  when  he  announced  to  the 


AUSTRO-GERAIAN  INTRIGUE  43 

court:  "The  genuineness  of  our  documents  is 
demonstrated  not  merely  by  the  character  of  each 
individual  document,  but  far  more  by  their  mutual 
connection  and  interdependence.  As  soon  as  any 
part  of  these  documents  is  proved  to  be  unques- 
tionably genuine  the  whole  chain  of  evidence  is 
complete  and  irrefutable."  Perhaps  he  recalled 
this  expression  with  as  much  gratification,  however, 
as  did  his  co-defendant  his  appeal  to  his  fellow 
historians  when  he  said:  "I  address  my  fellow 
historians  who  will  also  give  their  verdict  as  to 
whether  in  examining  these  documents  I  have 
acted  critically  and  conscientiously,  sifting  the 
true  from  the  false." 

The  next  morning,  while  the  trial  was  proceeding, 
there  appeared  on  the  scene  Dr.  J.  M.  Baernreither, 
a  leading  Austro-German  member  of  the  Reichsrat, 
and  a  man  known  to  be  in  the  confidence  not  only 
of  Count  Aehrenthal,  but  of  the  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand.  At  the  request  of  this  dignitary  the 
court  adjourned  in  order  that  he  might  confer 
with  the  litigants.  Doctor  Baernreither  drew  M. 
Supilo  and  his  colleagues  aside  and  urged  them 
for  the  reputation  of  Austria  and  the  dynasty 
to  drop  their  suit  against  Professor  Friedjung 
and  accept  his  retraction  of  the  charges  against 
them.  lie  promised  them  that,  if  they  would 
do  this,  the  bitterly  resented  absolute  government 
in  Croatia  would  be  modified  and  they  would  be 
given  a  voice  in  it.     This  was  the  kind  of  appeal 


44  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

to  which  no  one  in  an  absolutist  country  like 
Austria  or  Hungary  could  turn  a  deaf  ear  without 
incurring  the  implacable  hostility  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  thus  becoming  the  victim  of  constant 
persecution.  Taking  all  this  into  consideration, 
and  also  realizing  that  the  trial  had  gone  far  enough 
fully  to  vindicate  their  reputations  and  to  blacken 
those  of  their  opponents,  they  accepted  the 
Deputy's  proposition  and  agreed  to  receive  Pro- 
fessor Friedjung's  public  retraction  in  place  of  a 
verdict  against  him.  After  this  agreement  was 
made  the  puppet  court  was  reconvened  and  the 
puppet  defendant  called  upon  for  his  retraction. 
Whereupon  the  eminent  historian,  whose  scholarly 
tail  feathers  had  suffered  so  sorely  in  the  service 
of  his  Emperor  and  his  country,  was  required  to 
rise  and  make  the  following  retraction : 

"I  made  all  the  assertions  in  my  articles  after 
thorough  examination  and  only  reached  the  fun- 
damental views  expressed  after  conscientious  con- 
sideration of  all  the  circumstances  before  me. 
I  am  no  swashbuckler,  however,  and  know  how  to 
appreciate  the  importance  as  evidence  of  Professor 
Markovic's  stay  in  Berlin  now  officially  confirmed. 
I  therefore  conscientiously  acknowledge  that  the 
two  documents  of  October  20th  and  21st  must  be 
eliminated,  and  I  should  no  longer  like  to  base 
any  claims  upon  the  remaining  documents.  Hav- 
ing made  this  declaration  I  can  say  with  a  clear 
conscience  that  in  my  whole  attitude  in  this  affair 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  45 

and  also  in  to-day's  declaration  I  have  had  in  view 
solely  the  welfare  of  our  common  Fatherland." 

With  these  lofty  sentiments  the  once  famous 
and  now  notorious  scholar  took  his  seat,  the  court 
adjourned,  and  the  greatest  international  politico- 
legal  farce  and  scandal  of  recent  times  came  to  its 
abrupt  end. 

Meanwhile,  also,  the  Zagreb  high  treason  trial 
came  to  a  close.  On  October  5,  1909,  after  the 
trial  had  been  dragged  out  for  fully  five  months, 
or  fourteen  months  from  the  arrest  of  those  first 
accused,  thirty-six  of  the  fifty-eight  accused  were 
found  guilty  of  high  treason  and  twenty -two  were 
acquitted.  In  spite  of  the  law  which  fixes  death 
as  the  only  penalty  for  high  treason,  terms  of  im- 
prisonment were  inflicted  upon  those  pronounced 
guilty.  The  court  accompanied  the  verdict  with 
this  statement:  "The  court  has  relied  upon  the 
evidence  of  the  so-called  crown  witness,  George 
Nastic,  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  by  other  unquestion- 
able evidence  or  documentary  proofs  supported. 
The  rest  of  the  evidence  the  court  has  rejected  as 
irrelevant."  Thus  ended  the  first  great  treason 
trial — in  a  fiasco. 

Not  long  after  this  the  Septemviral  Table,  the 
Court  of  Appeals  of  Croatia,  set  aside  the  verdict 
on  the  ground  that  the  evidence  produced  by  the 
public  prosecutor  failed  to  prove  high  treason. 
The  thirty-six  persons,  some  of  whom  had  now  been 
in  prison  under  constant  punishment  for  alleged 


46  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

refractory  behaviour  for  more  than  a  year,  and 
in  association  with  the  lowest  common  criminals, 
were  set  free  and  declared  to  be  innocent.  One 
may  imagine  that  these  individuals  were  scarcely 
in  a  frame  of  mind  and  body  to  be  grateful  for  the 
good  character  which  their  government  had  finally 
given  them. 

Nearly  a  year  later  a  Belgrade  journalist  by 
the  name  of  Vasic  confessed  to  M.  Supilo  that 
he  was  the  Milan  Stefanovic,  the  alleged  secretary 
of  the  Slovenski  Jug,  in  whose  handwriting,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  Professor  Friedjung 
himself,  all  the  minutes  were  written — ^the  mysteri- 
ous secretary  whose  very  existence  was  unknown 
to  Professor  Markovic,  the  president.  Vasic  fur- 
ther admitted  that  he  made  these  forgeries  in  the 
Belgrade  Legation  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Min- 
ister, Count  Forgach,  himself.  Each  document 
was  then  photographed  and  these  photographs 
were  sent  regularly  both  to  Count  Aehrenthal  and 
Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand.  In  December,  1910, 
Vasic  was  brought  before  a  Belgrade  court,  and, 
on  his  own  confession,  condemned  to  five  years' 
imprisonment.  The  confession  of  Vasic  made  such 
a  stir  that  Count  Aehrenthal  finally  felt  obliged 
to  make  an  explanatory  statement.  Accordingly 
he  explained  in  his  organ,  the  Fremdenblatt,  that 
"he  [Vasic]  belongs  to  the  category  of  individuals 
which  ...  in  critical  times  press  their  in- 
formation   upon    diplomatic    agents.     His   state- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  47 

ments  were  received,"  he  added,  "by  a  subordinate 
clerk  of  the  Belgrade  I^egation  until  their  worth- 
lessness  became  apparent."  Although  perhaps 
not  so  intended,  this  statement  of  the  noble 
count  was  an  oflBcial  admission  of  the  worthless- 
ness  of  the  documents  upon  which  Professor 
Fried jung  and  Doctor  Funder  had  based  their 
charges,  which  were  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  a  great 
war.  In  Vasic  I  recognized  one  of  the  many 
shady  individuals  with  whom  our  legation  had  had 
clandestine  transactions  during  my  service  in 
Belgrade. 

I  now  watched  with  interest  to  see  what  means 
would  be  used  in  the  effort  to  rehabilitate  the  tar- 
nished reputations  of  my  former  chiefs  and  col- 
leagues in  our  Vienna  and  Belgrade  offices.  The 
faithful  Forgach,  after  the  Emperor  had  made 
him  a  Privy  Councillor  for  his  efforts,  was  banished 
as  Minister  to  the  Court  of  Dresden  for  their 
failure.  Otto  Franz  was  also  sent  to  Dresden, 
but  without  even  the  empty  title  of  Privy  Councillor 
as  a  consolation.  To  go  from  Belgrade,  at  that 
time  the  seething  centre  of  Near  Eastern  politics, 
to  Dresden,  the  centre  of  nothing  except  memories, 
was  indeed  a  setback  for  ambitious  diplomats. 
My  former  chief,  Herr  Hann  von  Hannenheim, 
was  sent  for  political  fumigation  to  Montreal, 
Canada. 

Count  Aehrenthal  and  his  associates  were  indeed 
under  a  cloud.     They  had  not  only  failed  to  justify 


48  AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE 

in  the  eyes  of  Europe  the  illegal  annexation  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  and  failed  to  bring  on  a 
war  with  Serbia  and  Russia — a  war  so  eagerly 
coveted  by  their  party — but  they  had  actually 
fastened  upon  themselves  and  upon  Austrian 
diplomacy  the  obloquy  of  aiding  and  abetting 
forgers  and  forgeries.  And  worst  of  all,  perhaps,  in 
a  monarchical  country  they  had  placed  a  stigma 
upon  the  head  of  the  heir  to  the  throne.  The 
Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand,  the  patron  if  not 
the  actual  head  of  the  War  Party,  of  course  suffered 
a  diminution  of  prestige  in  common  with  his  fol- 
lowers. The  old  emperor  was  said  to  be  very 
angry  at  the  methods  which  had  been  employed,  al- 
though it  is  more  probable  that  his  anger  was 
aroused  chiefly  by  their  lack  of  success. 


CHAPTER  III 

Austro-German  Plans  for  the  Conquest 
AND  Partition  of  Russia 

BISMARCK   EFFECTIVELY   OPPOSES   THESE   PLANS 

BEFORE  proceeding  with  my  personal  nar- 
rative I  will  introduce  the  reader  to  the 
origin  of  the  Austro-German  plans  for  the 
conquest  and  partition  of  Russia.  The  world 
drama  is  a  continuous  performance.  One  scene 
kaleidoscopically  follows  another  in  quick  succes- 
sion. The  assassination  of  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand  and  the  critical  period  following  before 
the  curtain  was  rung  up  for  the  World  War  were 
merely  the  epilogue  to  the  drama  of  intrigue  which 
opened  with  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  which  itself 
marked  only  the  revival  of  plans  originated  during 
the  Crimean  War.  Those  who  witnessed  the  cul- 
mination only  of  this  titanic  drama  naturally  found 
it  as  illogical  and  inexplicable  as  thunder  and 
lightning  coming  out  of  a  clear  sky.  It  is  to  such 
observers  that  Prince  Bismarck's  revelations  on 
Austria's  and  Prussia's  intrigues  in  the  Crimean 
War  should  be  recalled  in  order  that  they  may  see 
in  proper  perspective  the  managers  and  stage- 
hands of  the  World  War. 

49 


50  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

The  Teutonic  war  parties  of  the  World  War  were 
in  fact  merely  the  reincarnation  of  the  Austrian 
and  Prussian  war  parties  of  the  Crimean  War. 
In  Berlin  as  well  as  in  Vienna  there  was  at  the  time 
of  the  Crimean  War,  according  to  the  testimony 
of  Prince  Bismarck,  a  powerful  war  party  urging 
immediate  war  against  Russia.  The  propaganda 
for  war  against  Russia  in  1854  was  spread  chiefly 
by  the  Berlin  newspaper,  Preussisches  Wocheri' 
hlatt.  Bismarck  said:  "The  party  of  the  Woch- 
enblatt,  as  it  was  called,  played  a  curious  double 
game.  I  recollect  the  comprehensive  memoranda 
which  these  gentlemen  interchanged  among  them- 
selves, and  how  by  imparting  them  to  me  they 
even  sought,  now  and  then,  to  win  me  over  to  their 
side.  The  aim  specified  was  the  dismemberment 
of  Russia  {Die  Zerstueckelung  Russlands),  by  the 
forfeiture  of  the  Baltic  provinces,  including  St. 
Petersburg,  to  Prussia  and  Sweden,  the  loss  of  the  en- 
tire territory  of  the  Republic  of  Poland  in  its  widest 
extent,  and  the  disintegration  of  the  remainder  by 
a  division  between  Great  and  Little  Russia."* 

On  what  grounds  was  dismemberment  of  Russia 
proposed?  *'In  justification  of  this  program" 
(for  the  dismemberment  of  Russia),  Prince  Bis- 
marck says,  "the  theory  of  Baron  Von  Haxthausen- 
Abbenburg  ('Studies  of  the  International  Econ- 
omy of  Russia,  the  Life  of  the  People  and  in  Partic- 


*Bismarck's  "Reflections  and  Reminiscences";  Transl.  by  A.  J.  Butler, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  119-120. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  51 

ular,  the  Agrarian  Institutions')  was  made  use 
of;  namely,  that  the  three  zones,  with  their  mu- 
tually supplementary  products,  could  not  fail  to 
secure  predominance  in  Europe  to  the  hundred 
millions  of  Russians  provided  they  remained  united. 
From  this  theory  grew  the  corollary  that  the 
natural  bond  between  us  and  England  should  be 
developed  with  the  added  dark  insinuation  that 
if  Prussia  and  her  army  served  England  against 
Russia,  England  on  her  side  would  further  the 
Prussian  policy."* 

From  the  above,  it  appears  that  the  dismember- 
ment of  Russia  was  proposed  on  the  ground  that  if  the 
Slavs,  especially  the  Russians,  remained  united,  they 
would  inevitably  attain  preponderance  in  Europe. 

The  official  propaganda  for  the  dismemberment 
of  Russia  in  1854  was  conducted  by  Bethmann- 
Hollwcg,  uncle  of  the  Bethmann-IIollweg  of  the 
World  War.  It  was  financed  by  him  and  other  big 
capitalists,  whose  relatives  later  played  leading 
roles  in  bringing  about  the  World  War. 

"The  active  and  practical  realization  of  these 
hopes,"  Bismarck  continues,  "was  confined  to  the 
little  circle  of  the  Court  opposition,  which,  under 
the  name  of  the  Bethmann-Hollweg  group,  tried  to 
win  over  the  Prince  of  Prussia  to  themselves  and 
their  efforts.  The  party,  or  more  correctly,  coterie, 
found  its  original  mainstay  in  Count  Robert  von 

♦Bismarck's  "Reflections  and  Reminiscences";  Transl.  by  A.  J.  Butler, 
Vol.  I,  p.  120. 


52  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

der  Goltz,  a  man  of  unusual  competence  and  energy. 
The  ^financing'  of  the  business  (to  use  a  stock-ex- 
change expression)  was  provided  for  by  the  vast 
wealth  of  Bethmann-HoUweg,  Count  Fuersten- 
berg-Stammheim,  and  Count  Albert  Pourtales." 

Bismarck  discloses  a  report  from  the  Prussian 
Ambassador  to  London  from  which  it  appears  that 
England  at  that  time  favoured  the  programme  of 
the  Teutonic  war  parties,  going  even  so  far  as  prom- 
ising the  whole  south  of  Russia  with  the  Crimea  to 
Austria,  as  reward  for  cooperation  against  Russia. 

"While  Goltz  and  his  colleagues  at  Berlin," 
Bismarck  further  says,  "were  conducting  their 
affairs  with  a  certain  dexterity,  of  which  the  article 
just  mentioned  is  a  sample,  Bunsen,  our  Ambassa- 
dor in  London,  was  imprudent  enough  in  April, 
1854,  to  send  to  the  Minister,  Manteuffel,  a  lengthy 
memorandum  calling  for  the  restoration  of  Poland, 
the  extension  of  Austria  as  far  as  the  Crimea,  the 
deposition  of  the  Ernestine  line  from  the  throne  of 
Saxony, and  more  of  the  same  kind;  and  recommend- 
ing the  cooperation  of  Prussia  in  this  programme." 

Bismarck  then  gives  a  very  true  picture  of  the 
position  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  who  lived 
long  enough  to  realize  the  ambitions  of  his  youth, 
for  a  war  against  Russia:  "The  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  is  in  the  hands  of  his  police — and  during  the 
last  years  I  have  learned  what  that  means — ^and 
has  allowed  himself  to  be  deceived  by  lies  as  to  how 
Russia  incited   Kossuth  and   so  forth.     He   has 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  53 

stifled  his  conscience  therewith,  and  what  the 
police  cannot  compass  {nicht  vermag),  Ultramon- 
tanism  achieves,  namely,  rage  against  tlie  Orthodox 
Churcli  and  against  Protestant  Prussia.  On  this 
account  there  is  even  now  talk  of  a  Kingdom  of 
Poland  under  an  Austrian  Archduke. 

"With  these  childish  Utopias,  heads  clever 
enough,  no  doubt,  of  the  Bethmann-Hollweg  party 
played  at  being  statesmen,  believing  it  possible  to 
treat  a  body  of  sixty-six  million  Great  Russians  as 
if  it  were  a  caput  mortuum  in  the  future  of  Eiu-ope, 
which  they  could  misuse  as  they  pleased  without 
making  it  a  certain  ally  of  every  future  enemy  of 
Prussia  in  every  war  with  France,  to  guard  her 
rear  in  the  direction  of  Poland,  seeing  that  any 
arrangement  likely  to  satisfy  Poland  in  the  prov- 
inces of  Prussia  and  Posen  and  even  in  Silesia 
is  impossible  without  the  breaking  up  and  decom- 
posing of  Prussia.  Not  only  did  these  politicians 
consider  themselves  wise,  but  they  were  honoured 
as  such  by  the  Liberal  Press." 

Bismarck  sharply  criticizes  Bethmann-IIollweg 
and  his  group  of  dismemberers  of  Russia;  and 
flays  the  liberal  press  which  supported  them.  In 
order  to  understand  the  Austro-German  declara- 
tions of  war  against  Russia  in  1914  one  must  go 
back  to  this  Austro-Prussian  programme  of  1854. 

To  carry  out  their  ambitious  plan  for  the  con- 
quest and  partition  of  Russia  in  1854,  the  Court 
plotters  of  Vienna  and  Berlin  needed  only  a  justi- 


54  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

fiable  pretext  for  war,  and  right  here  came  their 
great  difficulty.  Russia  was  a  traditional  friend 
of  Prussia.  As  for  Austria,  only  six  years  before 
the  Russian  Czar  had  saved  the  throne  of  Em- 
peror Francis  Joseph,  and  Austria  from  dismem- 
berment in  the  revolutionary  years  of  1848-49. 
For  this  generous  act  the  Czar  had  asked  nothing 
in  return.  But  the  conscience  of  Francis  Joseph 
was  at  no  time  very  sensitive,  and  that  of  his 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  and  adviser,  Count 
Buol-Schauenstein,  a  German  from  Germany, 
was  even  less  so.  He  soon  found  the  desired  casus 
belli.  When  the  Russian  armies  crossed  the 
Danube  to  attack  Turkey,  the  ally  of  England, 
France,  and  Sardinia,  the  Ballplatz  became  very 
indignant  and  demanded  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Russians  behind  the  Danube. 

"The  efforts  of  Count  Buol,  Austrian  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  to  create  a  casus  belli  were 
frustrated  by  Russia's  evacuation  of  Wallachia 
and  Moldovia,"  says  Prince  Bismarck,  concluding, 
"If  we  do  not  hold  Austria  fast  as  long  as  practi- 
cable, we  burden  ourselves  with  a  serious  task." 

Regarding  these  events  we  have  also  the  testi- 
mony of  the  Austrian  historian  Heinrich  Fried jung 
in  his  work:  "The  Crimean  War  and  Austrian 
Polities'*  (Der  Krimkrieg  und  die  Oesterreichische 
Politik)  where  he  says:  "For  the  next  step  in  the 
development  of  affairs  the  stipulation  was  of  special 
importance  that  Austria  must  make  demand  on 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  55 

Russia  to  evacuate  the  Danubian  principalities, 
and  that  Prussia  must  support  this  demand.  Fur- 
thermore, a  mihtary  convention  was  concluded 
under  which  Austria  undertook  to  put  in  the  field 
an  army  of  350,000  men  and  Prussia  an  army  of 
200,000  men.  The  Czar  gave  vent  to  his  wrath  by 
ordering  the  removal  of  the  statue  and  picture  of 
the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  from  his  study;  giving 
the  statue  to  his  personal  valet.  The  Czar  ex- 
pressed himself  on  that  occasion  to  the  x\ustrian 
minister  to  this  effect:  "Sobieski  and  I  were  the 
most  stupid  Kings  of  Poland  for  having  saved 
Austria." 

What  do  we  learn  from  these  illuminating  remi- 
niscences of  Bismarck.^ 

First,  that  the  Hohenzollerns  and  the  Hapsburgs 
had  as  far  back  as  1854  painstakingly  worked  out, 
and  their  governments  had  actually  adopted,  a  com- 
plete plan  for  the  invasion  and  partition  of  Russia; 
laboured  at  all  costs  to  create  a  casus  belli;  that 
the  Ultra-Catholic  Party  at  the  Court  of  Vienna 
was  instigating  war,  and  that  the  party  led  by 
Bethmann-Hollweg,  Prussian  Minister  and  uncle 
of  Bethmann-Hollweg  of  the  World  War,  was  doing 
the  same. 

Let  us  compare  the  Teutonic  war  parties  of  1914 
with  those  of  1854.  With  the  difference  that  in 
place  of  the  defunct  ringleaders  we  find  their  sons 
and  nephews  or  other  relatives — the  personnel 
is  almost  identical.     In  the  place  of  the  Prussian 


56  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Crown  Prince  who  was  plotting  with  the  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg  group  of  the  Crimean  War  we 
find  his  grandson,  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II;  in  place  of 
Moritz  von  Bethmann-Hollweg,  the  original  leader, 
we  find  his  nephew,  Theobald  von  Bethmann- 
Hollweg,  the  Chancellor  who  came  into  office  in 
1909;  General  Von  der  Goltz  has  been  replaced  by 
his  relative  General  von  der  Goltz  Pasha,  one 
of  the  greatest  military  writers  of  Germany  and 
the  organizer  of  the  Turkish  army;  Count  Pourtales 
is  represented  by  his  relative  of  the  same  name  and 
title,  who  was  German  Ambassador  in  Petrograd 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  World  War;  and  finally 
Prince  Fuerstenberg-Stammheim  is  represented 
by  his  relative  Prince  Egon  Fuerstenberg,  the 
Croesus  of  the  aristocrats  cf  Austria-Germany. 

In  Austria,  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  alone  sur- 
vived to  see  his  youthful  dream  undertaken; 
Count  Buol-Schauenstein  was  successively  rep- 
resented by  Counts  Aehrenthal,  Berchtold,  Czer- 
nin,  and  Burian.  As  for  Hungary,  close  relatives 
of  Counts  Tisza,  Apponyi,  and  Andrassy,  the 
great  conspirators  of  the  World  War,  were  among 
the  leading  plotters  for  war  against  Russia  in  1854. 

The  same  families,  the  same  groups,  the  same 
business  interests,  court,  aristocracy,  big  land 
owners,  and  big  bankers.  The  pro-war  bankers 
of  1854  as  well  as  those  of  1914  originated  in  the 
Semitic  banking  centre  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main 
in   Germany,   the   birthplace   of   the   Bethmann- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  57 

Hollwegs,  the  Goldschmldts,  the  Seligmans,  Jacob 
Schiff,  and  the  Rothschilds. 

All  the  vast  wealth  of  the  banking  house  of  the 
Rothschilds,  amounting  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war  to  some  twenty  billion  francs,  was  made  chiefly 
in  war  operations,  war  financing.  The  Rothschild 
brothers  of  the  Central  Empires  have  in  fact  some- 
times financed  simultaneously  rival  groups  of 
belligerents. 

Frankfort-on-the-Main  is,  and  has  been  for  more 
than  a  hundred  years,  the  chief  source  of  financial 
backing  for  wars.  Kings,  emperors,  and  war  min- 
isters have  had  to  await  the  pleasure  of  these  bank- 
ers before  issuing  their  ultimata.  To  that  centre 
have  been  added  Vienna,  Berlin,  and  Budapest, 
the  other  more  important  centres  of  Jewish  world 
finance.  In  Vienna  the  Rothschilds'  word  is 
law;  in  Berlin  the  Ilahncmans,  Bleichroeders, 
Mendelssohns,  especially  the  last  named,  who  of 
late  years  have  controlled  Russia's  finances.  To 
these  same  sources  may  be  traced  the  origin  of  the 
World  War.  In  order  to  distinguish  between  the 
Ilollweg  groups  of  1854  and  1914  let  us  designate 
them  as  Bethmann-IIollweg  groups  No.  I  and  No. 
II,  or  that  of  the  Crimean  War  and  that  of  the 
World  War. 

What  prevented  the  Ilohenzollerns  and  Haps- 
burgs  from  carrying  out  their  plans  in  1854?  The 
firm  but  conciliatory  policy  of  Russia:  by  immedi- 
ately withdrawing  her  troops  from  the  Balkans,  by 


58  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

her  rapid  concentration  of  a  great  army  in  Poland; 
and  by  the  courage,  discipHne,  and  stubborn 
loyalty  with  which  her  armies  fought  the  invasion 
of  their  country  in  the  south;  and  were  prepared 
to  do  the  same  in  the  west.  Bismarck  also  played 
an  important  part  in  frustrating  these  designs. 
"Prussia  has  no  real  cause  for  war  with  Russia," 
he  said,  and  refused  to  be  a  party  to  these  plans. 

Thus  the  Bethmann-Hollweg  War  Party  of  1854 
finally  sank  into  oblivion.  But  in  the  degree  that 
Prussia  grew  stronger  and  bolder  through  the  suc- 
cessful Bismarckian  wars,  this  anti-Russian  war 
party  both  in  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  first 
raised  its  head  again,  during  the  Russo-Turkish 
War  of  1878,  but  not  until  the  weakening  of  Russia 
through  the  Russo-Japanese  War  was  it  restored 
to  full  vitality  once  more.  The  role  of  Count  Buol 
of  1854-5  was  played  in  1878  by  a  Hungarian, 
Count  Andrassy,  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs 
of  Austria-Hungary. 

But  not  until  a  British  fleet  appeared  before 
Constantinople  to  hold  in  check  the  victorious 
Russian  armies  which  stood  before  the  gates  of  that 
city,  did  Andrassy  take  heart.  Great  Britain's 
preparations  for  war  and  her  declaration  that  Rus- 
sia must  choose  between  war  and  a  congress  at 
which  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano  should  be  revised 
instantly  revived  the  bellicose  spirit  of  Austria 
which  had  been  somewhat  dampened  by  her  defeat 
at  Sadowa  in  1866  at  the  hands  of  Prussia. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  59 

Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  the  "adventurous" 
diplomacy  of  D'Israeli,  Russia's  arch-hater,  made 
it  possible  for  Andrassy  to  enthrone  Austria- 
Hungary  in  the  Balkans  by  extorting  at  the  Con- 
gress of  Berlin  the  mandate  for  her  occupation  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  This  prevented  the 
solution  of  the  Balkan  question  and  still  further 
whetted  the  territorial  appetite  of  Austro-Hungar- 
ian  diplomacy.  So  dangerous  grew  the  situation 
that  Bismarck  was  forced  in  1887  to  conclude  with 
Russia  his  famous  "Reinsurance  Treaty"  in  order 
to  checkmate  the  intrigues  of  the  war  advocates 
in  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  who  would 
have  endangered  his  life  work,  the  creation  of  the 
German  Empire.  The  "Reinsurance  Treaty" 
stipulated — according  to  recent  disclosures — that 
in  case  either  party  became  involved  in  war  the 
other  would  preserve  benevolent  neutrality  and  do 
its  best  to  keep  other  powers  from  coming  in; 
exceptions  being  made  in  case  of  a  Russian  attack 
upon  Austria  or  a  German  attack  upon  France. 

Germany,  furthermore,  recognized  Russia's  "his- 
torically acquired  rights  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula, 
especially  her  preponderant  influence  in  Bulgaria," 
and  both  parties  pledged  themselves  to  act  in  con- 
cert in  Balkan  affairs  and  to  prevent  any  territorial 
changes  there  without  their  consent.  Turkey 
was  to  be  forbidden,  under  penalty  of  a  Russo- 
German  attack,  to  admit  the  armed  forces  of  any 
other  power  to  the  Straits,  as  the   British  fleet 


60  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

had  been  admitted  in  1878  when  a  Russian  army 
sat  outside  Constantinople. 

So  much  for  the  treaty,  which  was  secret.  An 
appendix,  described  as  "very  secret,"  went  still 
further.  Above  all,  Germany  promised  benevolent 
neutrality  in  case  Russia  herself  should  undertake 
to  seize  the  Bosphorus  and  hold  it  against  any  out- 
side power,  and  to  give  moral  and  diplomatic 
support  to  any  steps  which  the  Czar  might  find 
necessary  "to  keep  the  keys  of  his  empire  in  his 
hands." 

Bismarck  in  his  memoirs  supported  his  Reinsur- 
ance policy  with  the  following  reflections : 

"I  believe  that  it  would  be  advantageous  for 
Germany  if  the  Russians  in  one  way  or  another, 
physically  or  diplomatically,  were  to  establish 
themselves  at  Constantinople  and  had  to  defend 
that  position.  We  should  then  cease  to  be  in  the 
condition  of  being  hounded  on  by  England  and 
occasionally  also  by  Austria,  and  exploited  by  them 
to  check  Russian  lust  after  the  Bosphorus,  and  we 
should  be  able  to  wait  and  see  if  Austria  were  at- 
tacked and  thereby  our  casus  belli  arose. 

"It  would  be  better  for  the  Austrian  policy  also 
to  withdraw  itself  from  the  influence  of  Hungarian 
chauvinism  until  Russia  had  taken  up  a  position 
on  the  Bosphorus,  and  had  thereby  considerably 
intensified  its  friction  with  the  Mediterranean 
states — ^that  is  with  England,  and  even  with 
Italy  and  France — ^and  so  had  increased  the  neces- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  61 

sity  of  coming  to  an  understanding  with  Austria 
a  Vaimahle.  Were  I  an  Austrian  minister  I  would 
not  prevent  the  Russians  going  to  Constantinople 
but  I  would  not  begin  an  understanding  with 
them  until  they  had  made  the  move  forward. 
Under  any  circumstances,  the  share  which  Austria 
has  in  the  inheritance  of  Turkey  will  be  arranged 
in  understanding  with  Russia,  and  the  Austrian 
portion  will  be  all  the  greater  the  better  they  know 
at  Vienna  how  to  wait,  and  to  encourage  Russian 
policy  to  take  up  a  more  advanced  position.  As 
regards  England,  the  position  of  modern  Russia 
might  perhaps  be  considered  as  improved  if  it 
ruled  Constantinople;  but  as  regards  Austria  and 
Germany,  Russia  would  be  less  dangerous  as  long 
as  it  remained  in  Constantinople.  It  would  no 
longer  be  possible  for  Prussia  to  blunder  as  it 
did  in  1855,  and  to  play  ourselves  out  and  hazard 
our  stake  for  Austria,  England,  and  France,  in 
order  to  earn  a  humiliating  admission  to  the 
congress  and  a  mention  honorable  as  a  European 
Power."* 

Unfortunately  this  policy  of  Bismarck  for  pre- 
serving the  peace  between  Germany,  Austria- 
Hungary,  and  Russia  was  abandoned  shortly  after 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  came  to  the  throne  and  the 
old  War  Party  received  a  new  impetus.  From 
the  beginning  of  his  reign  the  clamour  for 
war  against  Russia  grew  every  year  bolder  and 

•Bismarck's  "Reflections  and  Reminiscences,"  Vol.  II,  pp.  288-281). 


02  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

louder.  The  Pan-German  Party  took  the  lead 
in  this  hue  and  cry  and  its  publications  were 
not  only  sanctioned  but  inspired  by  the  Wilhelm- 
strasse. 

War,  according  to  Prussian  conceptions,  being 
a  business  enterprise,  Austria-Germany  sought  to 
secure  its  lasting  benefits  in  a  business-like  way. 
Russia's  national  income  is  based  on  her  exports 
to  foreign  countries;  two  thirds  of  those  exports  go 
by  way  of  her  Black  Sea  ports  and  thence  through 
the  Bosphorus  and  the  Dardanelles.  These  straits 
are  Russia's  real  outlet.  Once  this  outlet  is  closed, 
Russian  commerce  comes  to  a  standstill  and  the 
nation  is  ruined.  The  other  third  of  her  exports 
go  through  the  Baltic  ports.  The  sea,  therefore, 
is  the  life-giving  medium  which  keeps  Russia  in 
touch  with  the  outer  world  and  makes  possible 
her  economic  life. 

Austria-Germany's  military  plan  was  then  a 
business  plan:  namely,  to  cut  Russia  off  from  the 
approaches  to  the  sea  both  in  the  north  and  the 
south,  in  the  Baltic  and  Black  seas,  and  undoubt- 
edly to  close  forever  against  her  the  Dardanelles. 
Whoever  owns  the  coast  of  a  country  owns  its 
hinterland — Germany's  "liberation"  of  the  Baltic 
provinces,  Austria's  "liberation"  of  the  Ukraine, 
were  to  be  a  cloak  for  the  economic  robbery,  and 
hence  the  ultimate  political  annihilation,  of  Russia. 
No  country  can  permanently  import  more  com- 
modities than  it  can  pay  for  with  its  exports.    Thus 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  63 

might  Russia  be  reduced  to  impotence  and  made  a 
virtual  colony  of  the  Central  Empires.  Like  a 
red  thread  is  this  idea  woven  into  the  great  tissue  of 
all  Austro-German  designs  on  Russia.  Along  these 
lines  both  Bethmann-Hollweg  groups  No.  I  and 
No.  II  conceived  their  plans. 

It  took  Bethmann-Hollweg  and  Co.  sixty  years 
to  bring  to  realization  that  which  Bismarck  called 
their  "  Ausschlachtung "  or  "Zerstueckelung"  of 
Russia — a  butcher's  term,  meaning  respectivelj'' 
the  "carving  out"  of  a  slaughtered  animal,  and 
cutting  it  up  into  small  portions.  Of  the  original 
"partners"  of  the  original  joint-stock  company 
one  only,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  lived  long 
enough  to  see  the  great  operation  for  which  the 
company  was  founded  actually  begun.  All  the 
other  partners  had  died  and  their  places  had  beei 
taken  by  their  heirs  and  successors.  The  task 
which  the  company  set  itself  in  the  Crimean  War 
was  at  that  time  much  easier  to  accomplish.  Four 
powers  were  already  fighting  Russia  in  the  south 
— England,  France,  Sardinia,  and  Turkey.  Had 
Prussia  and  Austria  joined  them  as  they  planned, 
the  ring  would  have  been  complete.  In  the  sixty 
years  that  elapsed  the  magnitude  of  the  task  grew 
immeasurably.  Russia  had  grown  stronger  both 
militarily  and  economically.  To  overthrow  her 
quickly  she  must  be  invaded  from  all  sides  at  the 
same  time.  Furthermore,  modern  wars  are  wars 
of  peoples,  of  "peoples  in  arms"  as  the  Germans 


64  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

put  it.  Preparations  had  to  be  widened  and  deep- 
ened. New  silent  associates  had  to  be  brought  in 
and  the  scope  of  the  whole  enterprise  had  to  be 
enlarged  and  so  popularized  as  to  win  to  its  support 
the  common  people.  The  acquisition  of  new  silent 
partners  was  an  easy  matter,  as  all  the  Germanic 
princes  of  Europe  were  eager  to  join  Austria- 
Germany  in  such  an  enterprise.  The  nation-wide 
propaganda  which  had  to  be  carried  on  at  home  was 
of  a  far  more  difficult  nature.  In  1854-55,  when 
the  peoples  were  ruled  absolutely  and  decisions  for 
war  or  peace  were  the  sole  concern  of  the  rulers 
and  a  few  powerful  men,  it  actually  sufficed,  as 
Bismarck  has  said,  to  "exchange  comprehensive 
secret  memoranda  among  themselves"  to  bring 
things  to  a  head.  In  these  days  this  is  impossible 
even  in  the  most  reactionary  countries.  In  1854 
rulers  dealt  with  armies  of  200,000  men;  in  modern 
wars  millions  have  to  be  called  to  the  colours. 
These  people  had  to  be  told  what  there  was  in  the 
enterprise  to  make  it  worth  while  to  risk  the  lives 
of  millions.  Therefore  war  aims  could  no  longer 
be  kept  secret.  They  had  to  be  explained  and 
popularized  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word.  It 
would  take  an  encyclopaedia  to  enumerate  the 
literature  that  Austria  and  Germany  used  for  this 
purpose.  This  voluminous  Pan-German  literature 
is  well  exemplified  by  two  books  which  have  never 
been  translated  into  English  and  which  are  little 
known   in   the   English-speaking   world.     One   is 


I 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  mXRIGUE  65 

entitled:  *' Neither  Communism  nor  Capitalism" 
{Weder  Kommunisinus  noch  Kapitalismus) ,  written 
by  Dr.  Karl  Jentsch  of  Leipzig  and  published  in 
1893.  The  other  is  called:  "Germany's  Problems 
as  a  Great  and  World  Power"  (Deutschlands  Auf- 
gaben  als  Gross-und  Wcltmacht)  written  by  Otto 
Delffs  and  published  in  1901. 

The  quotations  from  these  volumes  which  follow 
will  show  how  the  theory  of  Baron  von  Haxthausen- 
Abbenburg,  already  mentioned,  w^as  enlarged. 
These  publications  were  among  the  first  fruits  of 
the  Pan-German  League,  which  was  established  in 
1890,  in  response  to  an  editorial  in  the  KoeU 
nisclic  Zeitung,  entitled:  "Germany,  Wake  Up!" 
The  Koelnische  Zeitung  is  one  of  the  principal  or- 
gans of  the  German  Catholic  Party.  Long  before 
the  World  War  it  openly  advocated  war  against 
Serbia  and  Russia;  and,  during  the  war,  clamoured 
for  annexations  in  the  East. 

In  his  book  Doctor  Jentsch  says  of  Russia: 

"It  has  been  said  that  Russia  finds  it  necessary 
to  have  access  to  the  Mediterranean,  but  this  is 
nonsense. 

"The  Russians  need  for  their  existence  only  two 
things:  that  instead  of  Schnapps  (brandy)  there 
should  be  put  into  their  hands  hatchets,  ploughs, 
anrl  spades,  and  that  in  lieu  of  the  knout  they 
should  be  given  intelligent  leadership;  both  things 
we  could  bring  them.  ...  In  the  East,  there- 
fore, lies,  quite  naturally,  the  war  danger,  but  not 


60  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

because  Russia  wants  the  Golden  Horn  but  because 
Germany  wants  Russia's  land. 

"Germany  and  Austria,  as  the  executors  of  the 
allied  powers,  should  lead  their  land  armies  into 
Russia,  while  the  other  powers  should  assist  them 
in  their  operations  with  their  fleets.     .     .     ." 

And  later  the  author  thus  defines  the  modest  lim- 
its of  Pan-Germany.     He  says: 

"How  would  matters  develop  after  the  opening 
up  of  Russia  and  Asia  Minor?  The  colonist 
groups  would  form  republics  under  the  nominal 
suzerainty  of  the  Czar  and  the  Porte.  The  German 
colonists,  spread  over  these  wide  areas,  would  be 
under  the  protection  of  the  German  Kaiser.  In 
this  manner  the  whole  European  East,  as  well  as 
Asia  Minor,  would  form  one  mighty  German  Em- 
pire, a  rampart  for  European  culture  against  Rus- 
sian and  Mongol  hordes,  Germany  becoming  the 
Empire  of  empires.  {Das  Wahre  Reich  der  echten 
Mitte.) 

"Whoever  does  not  believe  that  the  German 
nation,  whose  ancestors  have  crushed  the  Roman 
Empire  and  have  once  already  dominated  Europe, 
is  capable  of  performing  this  task,  should  be 
ashamed  of  himself  and  had  better  give  up  his  Ger- 
man name.     .     .     ." 

In  speaking  of  Germany's  relation  to  Austria- 
Hungary  the  author  says : 

" .  .  .  .  The  union  of  Austria  to  Germany, 
through    which    alone   the    German   power   may 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  67 

become  compact  and  solidified,  belongs  to  the 
problems  which  our  grandchildren  will  have  to 
solve." 

Otto  Delffs  makes  the  following  observations 
on  Russia: 

"The  first  step  is  to  get  back  into  our  fold  the 
lost  brother  tribes  on  all  sides;  the  second,  our 
colonization  of  Siberia  and  Trans-Caucasia;  the 
third,  to  push  Russia  back  from  the  Baltic  and 
Black  seas  and  to  settle  their  coasts  with  German 
colonists.  Captain  Mahan  has  established  the 
guiding  principle:  'Who  rules  the  sea,  rules  also  the 
land  back  of  it'  as  we  ourselves  have  established 
in  Africa  as  our  state  maxim:  'He  who  owns  the 
seacoast  must  own  also  the  hinterland.'  In 
view  of  these  our  claims  we  must  without  scruples 
force  Russia  to  transfer  her  capital  to  Moscow 
and  let  her  dream  out  her  existence  as  a  German 
enclave. 

"And  for  this  same  reason  we  must  annihilate 
her  before  she  gets  too  strong.  The  '^Coeterum 
censeo  Russiam  esse  delendant'  must  become  to 
every  German  of  culture  as  familiar  as  the  Pater 
Noster,  and  this  annihilation  must  be  a  literal  one; 
the  complete  elimination  of  Russia  from  the 
ranks  of  the  Great  Nations.  If  we  arc  too  short- 
sighted and  pusillanimous  eventually  to  claim  the 
whole  Russian  Empire  for  ourselves  and  our  allies, 
and  consequently  firmly  to  hold  it,  or  if  we  arc 
afraid  of  the  colonization  problems  in  the  Vistula 


68  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

regions,  then  we  must  at  the  very  least  demand  the 
cession  of  Siberia,  as  through  this  we  get  what  we 
need  above  all — an  intracontinental  uninhabited 
colonization  area  with  approximately  a  European 
climate .  Later  we  could,  if  need  be,  crush  the  rest 
of  the  Muscovite  Empire  between  our  two  buffers. 
Allies  we  will  easily  find  and  richly  compensate: 
Hungarians,  Rumanians,  Turks,  Scandinavians, 
Austrians,  Chinese,  and  Japanese." 

Later  he  adds : 

"When,  therefore,  after  the  death  of  Francis 
Joseph,  the  collapse  of  the  Danube  Monarchy 
comes,  ive  must  stand  ready  to  step  in  with  strong 
hands  and  take  over  the  heirloom  of  the  Danube. 
The  main  thing  in  all  this  is  that  it  must  be  done 
before  Russia  gets  too  strong." 

The  learned  Pan-German  concludes  with  this 
scornful  reference  to  the  old-fashioned  views  of 
Prince  Bismarck: 

"But  we  have  already  outgrown  Bismarck's 
narrow  range  of  vision.  In  forming  his  plans,  he 
did  not  foresee  that  we  were  firmly  to  establish 
ourselves  in  China  and  Asia  Minor.  Here  our 
motto  must  be  for  the  moment:  ' J'.?/  suis,  Ty 
reste.^  We  are  already  placing  Russia  between 
two  fires.  But  Bismarck  had  no  idea  of  all  this; 
otherwise  he  would  have  followed  the  wise  counsel 
of  the  great  Moltke  and  would  have  annihilated 
Russia  when  the  time  was  ripe.  In  the  year  1871 
or  in  1881,  after  the  death  of  Alexander,  the  oppor- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  CO 

tunity  was  offered  to  carry  out  this  idea  with  rela- 
tive ease." 

As  early  as  1871,  flushed  with  the  victory  over 
France,  Field  Marshal  Von  Moltke  advised  an 
immediate  attack  upon  Russia.  Again  in  1881 
when  Alexander  I,  the  Czar-liberator  and  friend 
of  the  Slavs,  died,  Von  Moltke  urged  the  overthrow 
of  Russia. 

This  preliminary  war  propaganda  was  of  two 
kinds,  according  to  the  composition  of  the  peoples 
from  whom  the  fighting  material  was  sought—^ 
Pan-Germanic  and  Pan-Turanian;  the  first  was 
used  with  all  the  Germanic  peoples  in  the  alli- 
ance; the  second  with  all  Turanian  or  Ugro- 
Mongol  peoples.  It  may  suffice  here  to  say  that 
to  win  them  over  the  war-makers  played  on  all 
the  passions,  hatreds,  cupidity,  religious  intoler- 
ance, etc.,  of  all  the  peoples. 

Indeed,  Germany's  world  policy  since  the  time 
of  Bismarck,  and  especially  during  the  time  of 
Kaiser  Wilhehn  II,  was  stupendous.  By  estab- 
lishing herself  in  Morocco,  she  sought  to  drive  the 
British  from  Egypt,  and  to  bring  both  doors  of 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  the  sea  route  to  India 
and  the  Far  East  into  her  hands;  through  her 
policy  in  Asiatic  Turkey  she  aimed  to  create  for 
herself  a  sure  road  on  dry  land  to  the  Indian  Ocean; 
and  through  the  continuation  of  the  Bagdad  Road, 
to  reach  through  Persia  the  gates  of  India. 
Through  her  policy  in  Central  Africa,  Germany 


70  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

sought  to  prevent  England  from  building  the 
Transafrican  Cape-to-Cairo  Railway.  By  the 
irrigation  of  Mesopotamia  and  the  final  settle- 
ment of  that  country  by  German  immigrants,  she 
planned  to  prevent  Russia  from  reaching  a  south- 
ern port.  Finally,  Constantinople  was  and  is 
the  real  key  to  Austro-German  world  policy,  for 
this  great  cosmopolitan  city  was  the  apex  and 
common  meeting  point  for  the  two  territorial 
triangles  which  Austro-German  diplomacy  had 
constructed  for  itself — one  spreading  out  like  a 
fan  north  and  northwest  into  Europe,  the  other 
running  south  and  southeast  into  Asia:  the  first 
extending  on  its  one  side  through  Salonica  and 
Trieste  to  Antwerp  and  Rotterdam  in  the  north 
and  on  its  other  side  extending  from  Constantinople 
through  the  delta  of  the  Danube  and  Kieff  as  far 
north  as  Reval.  This  triangle,  then,  embraced 
the  following  territories:  the  empires  of  Germany 
and  Austria-Hungary  with  Holland  and  Belgium 
added  to  those  of  Germany,  and  the  Balkans 
with  Rumania  added  to  Austria-Hungary,  while 
Poland  and  Little  Russia  under  the  joint  domina- 
tion of  the  two  Teutonic  empires  comprised  the 
remaining  territory  within  it.  The  other  triangle 
included  the  whole  of  Asiatic  Turkey,  Persia,  and 
Arabia  as  far  as  the  distant  lands  of  India. 

Constantinople  was,  therefore,  the  keystone 
in  the  arch  of  Germany's  world  power  and  world 
greatness.     Around    this    pivotal    point    centred 


AUSTRO-GERJ^IAN  INTRIGUE  71 

Germany's  world  policy,  directed — both  militarily 
and  economically — on  the  one  side  against  Russia, 
on  the  other  against  Great  Britain.  Deprived 
of  Constantinople  as  the  centre  from  which  to 
direct  the  destinies  of  these  vast  territories,  the 
whole  structure,  consolidated  with  so  much  blood 
and  iron,  has  crumbled,  and  the  German  hege- 
mony over  Europe  and  the  world  has  vanished. 
England  remains  mistress  of  the  seas,  and  a 
regenerated  Russia  must  break  through  to  the 
south  and  again  find  access  to  the  life-giving  sea. 
That  Germany  may  absorb  Russia  through  com- 
mercial penetration  before  this  regeneration  has 
had  time  to  take  place  is  now  the  greatest  danger 
which  faces  not  only  Russia  but  the  world. 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Ofener  Hofburg  War  Conference 
October,  1912 

betiiman-hollweg  commits  germany  to  war, 
december,  1912 

4LL  the  actors  in  this  war  drama — ^Forgach, 
/_\  Franz, Tanczos,  Hann,  and  their  numerous 
Jl  !a.  sateUites,  foiled,  humiUated,  and  discred- 
ited, had  been  removed  from  the  Imperial  stage 
and  were,  with  what  patience  they  could  summon, 
awaiting  their  re-engagement.  All,  that  is,  except 
their  supreme  leader,  Count  Aehrenthal  and  his 
royal  sponsor,  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand. 
Aehrenthal,  discredited,  feared,  hated,  almost 
blind,  a  broken  and  dying  man,  although  compar- 
atively young,  was  forced  in  bitterness  to  realize 
that  he  could  no  longer  achieve  his  consuming 
ambition  for  the  conquest,  destruction,  and  parti- 
tion of  the  country  whose  hospitality  he  had  en- 
joyed for  ten  long  years.  Even  the  brilliance  of 
the  Great  Cross  which  his  master,  Francis  Joseph, 
"the  All  Highest,"  now  conferred  upon  him,  could 
not  dispel  his  gloom.  Nor  was  his  despondency 
lessened  by  being  involuntarily  placed  upon  the 

72 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  73 

retired  list  a  few  hours  before  Iiis  end  in  order 
that  his  Countess  on  his  deatli  might  draw  the 
pension  of  a  former  Minister  instead  of  the  hberal 
allowance  bestowed  upon  the  widows  of  those  who 
die  in  office. 

The  dying  man  summoned  to  his  sick  bed  his 
understudy  and  successor,  Count  Berchtold,  and 
to  him  confided  his  state  secrets  and  implored 
him  to  continue  with  all  his  energy  the  programme 
and  policy  of  the  War  Party,  just  as  he  had  con- 
tinued Austria's  underground  work  as  his  successor 
in  Petrograd.  Not  much  more  than  two  years 
later  Berchtold  fulfilled  the  dying  trust  of  his 
predecessor;  the  great  war  was  a  ghastly  reality. 

Just  as  Aehrenthal's  plans  were  for  the  time  up- 
set by  the  unexpected  Turkish  Revolution,  so 
were  Berchtold's  thrown  into  confusion  by  the 
still  more  unexpected  Balkan  Alliance  followed  by 
the  Balkan  Wars.  When  our  General  Staff  and 
Foreign  Office,  which  since  the  advent  to  power 
of  Aehrenthal  had  been  one  soul  in  two  bodies, 
learned  that  Serbia  and  Bulgaria  were  allied  and 
about  to  enter  the  baptism  of  fire  as  brothers  in 
arms,  they  were  for  the  moment  paralyzed  with 
rage  and  amazement.  As  the  Literary  Section 
of  the  Foreign  Ofl^ce  expressed  it:  *' Enemies  to 
the  death  have  become  friends." 

For  the  benefit  of  those  not  familiar  with  Balkan 
afiFairs  it  should  here  be  explained  that  the  Balkan 
Peninsula  is  surrounded  by  three  seas  and  forms 


74  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

a  mosaic  of  small  and  great  nations,  Greeks,  Turks, 
Albanians,  and  Slavs,  of  whom  the  Slavs  form  the 
great  majority  of  the  population,  extending  in  an 
unbroken  stretch  of  territory  from  the  Soca 
(Isonzo),  that  is,  from  the  confines  of  Italy,  to  the 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea.  For  two  thousand  years 
the  land  has  been  cursed  by  bloody,  racial,  religious, 
and  dynastic  wars.  Neither  all-powerful  Rome 
of  the  Western  Empire,  nor  cunning  Byzantium 
of  the  Eastern  Empire;  neither  the  Bulgarian 
Simons  nor  the  Serbian  Dushans  had  succeeded 
in  welding  the  peoples  of  the  Peninsula  into  organic 
unity.  Through  the  centuries  the  Balkan  Penin- 
sula, with  its  vast  stores  of  undeveloped  mineral 
wealth,  has  been  the  coveted  prey  of  Eurasiatic 
conquerors.  It  is  to-day  the  beautiful  Helen  of 
Troy  for  whose  possession  was  started  this  last 
titanic  Trojan  war. 

At  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing  there  were 
two  proposed  solutions  for  the  never-ending  Balkan 
turmoil  and  bloodshed,  one  Russian  and  the  other 
Austrian.  The  Russian  solution  sought,  through 
the  confederation  of  the  autonomous  national 
states  bound  together  by  a  custom's  union  and 
a  military  convention  and  represented  by  one 
diplomatic  body,  to  build  up  on  the  Peninsula 
a  powerful  state  which  should  be  the  tenth  world 
power.  The  Austrian  solution  aimed  to  perpetu- 
ate the  turmoil  by  engendering  rivalry  and  hatred 
among  the  several  states  until  it  should  be  possi- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  75 

ble  for  Austria  gradually  to  absorb  or  crush  them 
and  finally  to  bring  the  whole  Peninsula  into  a 
position  of  vassalage  to  the  Hapsburg  crown. 

The  Balkan  Alliance  was  the  first  step  in  carry- 
ing into  effect  the  Russian  plan.  It  was  brought 
about  by  Russian  diplomacy.  Russia  felt  that 
only  through  the  creation  of  an  alliance  between 
the  Balkan  States  could  she  liberate  the  Christian 
peoples  of  the  Peninsula  from  the  Turkish  yoke 
and  protect  Serbia's  independence  from  the  en- 
croachments of  Austria.  After  long  and  difficult 
conferences  the  "Serbian-Bulgarian  Treaty"  of 
March  13,  1912,  was  negotiated.  This  treaty 
provided  that  each  power  should  help  the  other 
with  all  its  forces  if  attacked,  and  that  both  to- 
gether should  guarantee  to  prevent  the  occupation, 
even  temporarily,  of  any  portion  of  the  Peninsula 
by  any  other  power;  and  that  in  the  event  of  war 
neither  state  should  under  any  circumstances 
make  a  separate  peace.  The  treaty  was  to  remain 
in  force  until  September  31,  1920.  To  the  original 
treaty  was  added  a  secret  treaty  which  stipulated 
the  portions  of  Macedonia  which  should  go  to 
each  country  in  case  of  a  war  with  Turkey  and 
the  occupation  of  Macedonia.  In  case  of  dispute 
between  the  parties  to  the  treaty,  the  Czar  of 
Russia  was  to  be  the  arbitrator.  A  few  months 
later  the  treaty  was  completed  by  a  military  con- 
vention between  the  two  states  to  which  Monte- 
negro and  Greece  later  adhered. 


76  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

During  my  service  in  Serbia  I  had  never  tired  of 
pointing  out  to  the  Bulgarian  diplomats  the  great 
advantages  which  would  accrue  to  both  countries 
and  to  all  Slavs  from  an  economic  and  military 
alliance  between  Bulgaria  and  Serbia  and  the  cor- 
responding dangers  from  hostility  between  these 
neighbouring  states.  Consequently  in  those  Oc- 
tober days  of  1912  one  of  my  life-long  dreams 
seemed  about  to  be  realized.  Slavs  the  world  over, 
whether  in  Austria-Hungary,  the  Balkans,  Russia, 
America,  Africa,  or  Australia,  rejoiced  at  this  mani- 
festation of  Slav  solidarity. 

To  show  how  completely  Austro-Hungarian 
diplomacy  was  caught  unawares  by  the  outbreak 
of  the  Balkan  Wars,  on  October  12, 1912,  when  Herr 
von  Ugron,  our  Minister  at  Belgrade,  was  asked 
by  a  correspondent  of  the  Neue  Freie  Presse,  the 
principal  Austrian  war  organ,  whether  there  was 
any  danger  of  war  between  Serbia  and  Turkey,  he 
replied:  *'Does  this  peaceful  city  suggest  the  out- 
break of  war?  "  On  October  14th,  Serbia,  Bulgaria, 
and  Greece  presented  their  ultimatum  to  Turkey, 
demanding  autonomy  for  Macedonia,  and  four 
days  afterward  the  actual  fighting  started.  In 
spite  of  its  feverish  suspicion  and  army  of  well-paid 
spies,  the  Ballplatz  had  been  caught  napping. 
This  caused  an  outburst  of  indignation  and  ac- 
cusation in  the  German  and  Magyar  circles  of 
Vienna  and  Budapest. 

My  service  in  Serbia  had  also  made  it  clear  to 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  77 

me  that  little  as  we  wanted  Serbia  to  enter  this 
alHance  and  this  war  we  were  at  bottom  tlie  cause 
for  her  action — that  is,  that  our  pohcy  of  economic 
strangulation  toward  her  had  forced  her  to  try 
drastic  remedies  in  self-defence.  During  my  two 
years'  service  in  Belgrade  and  Nish  I  had  come  into 
closer  touch  with  the  Serbian  exporters,  merchants, 
and  peasants  than  had  any  other  member  of  our  dip- 
lomatic or  consular  corps.  I  knew  their  fundamen- 
tal problem  was  how  to  export  their  farm  products. 
I  knew  that  our  government  had  deliberately  made 
this  problem  all  but  insoluble.  Serbia  is  an  agricul- 
tural country  with  cattle  and  hogs,  wheat,  corn, 
and  prunes  to  export.  For  the  last  eight  years,  since 
the  overthrow  of  the  pro-Austrian  Obrenovitch 
dynasty,  the  country  had,  in  spite  of  our  efforts  at 
strangulation,  been  in  a  state  of  rapid  economic 
development. 

The  iniquitous  Congress  of  Berlin  of  1878  had 
given  Serbia  impossible  boundaries.  She  had  no 
harbour,  no  outlet  to  the  life-giving  sea.  She 
was  almost  surrounded  by  the  high  tariff  walls  of 
Austria  and  Turkey.  For  Serbian  exports  there 
were  three  routes  only:  the  Danube  clown  stream 
across  Rumania  to  the  harbours  of  tlie  Black 
Sea;  the  Danube  up  stream  and  the  railway  via 
Budapest-Vienna  througli  Auslro-Hungarian  ter- 
ritory; and  the  Belgrade-Uskub-Salonica  railroad 
through  Turkish  territory.  Our  economic  policy 
toward   Serbia   was   dictated   by   the  big  export 


78  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

houses  of  Vienna  and  the  big  Magyar  swine- 
breeders  of  Hungary,  the  so-called  "swine  barons. " 
The  first  group  aimed  to  monopohze  for  their  prod- 
ucts the  Serbian  market  and  the  second  to  prevent 
Serbia  from  competing  with  them  in  the  great 
food  markets  of  Vienna  and  Berhn;  by  their 
monopoly  of  which  markets  they  were  enabled 
constantly  to  raise  their  prices. 

But  the  almost  prohibitive  duties  on  Serbian 
products  were  not  enough  to  satisfy  the  greed  of 
the  Magyar  "swine  barons."  They  developed 
a  device  for  shutting  off  the  importation  of  Serbian 
swine  completely  and  at  will.  This  device  was 
simplicity  itself.  There  was  a  Hungarian  veteri- 
nary attached  to  our  Belgrade  Consulate.  When- 
ever the  "swine  barons"  desired  a  complete  monop- 
oly of  the  hog  market  or  whenever  our  diplomacy 
desired  to  extort  from  Serbia  some  further  political 
or  economic  favour,  we  would  learn  that  disease 
was  rampant  among  Serbian  live  stock  which  would 
infect  our  own  stock  unless  importations  were 
stopped.  The  Hungarian  veterinary  would  then 
be  called  upon  to  investigate.  His  researches 
always  confirmed  the  worst  fears  of  our  diplomats, 
and  Serbian  importations  were  stopped.  The 
fact  that  no  country  in  Europe  had  a  better  health 
record  for  its  live  stock  than  Serbia  made  no 
difference  to  this  veterinary  and  from  his  decision 
there  was  no  appeal.  Doctor  Kramarz,  the  fore- 
most  authority  on  foreign   relations   among   the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  79 

Austrian  Slavs,  said  in  commenting  on  this  treat- 
ment of  Serbia:  "No  nation  can  very  well  depend 
for  its  existence  upon  a  Hungarian  veterinary 
doctor." 

Our  repressive  measures  went  further  than  an 
attempt  to  monopolize  Serbian  markets  for  our 
products  while  keeping  Serbian  products  out  of  our 
markets.  We  actually  tried  to  prevent  her  from 
securing  markets  elsewhere.  We  prohibited  her 
from  exporting  via  Croatia-Trieste  to  Italy.  We 
would  not  allow  her  to  transport  her  wheat  destined 
for  Belgium  via  the  Danube  and  through  Austria- 
Hungary.  She  was  therefore  obliged  to  take  it  all 
the  way  down  the  Danube  to  the  Black  Sea  and 
then  through  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean. 

It  should  be  added  that  our  government  pur- 
sued exactly  the  same  policy  of  economic  oppres- 
sion also  toward  its  own  southern  Slav  provinces, 
such  as  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  except  that 
having  absolute  control  over  them  we  could  be, 
and  we  were,  more  ruthless  in  their  oppressive 
exploitation. 

Through  the  elimination  of  some  of  these 
flagrant  injustices  during  my  brief  term  at  the  head 
of  the  Consulate  General  in  Belgrade  the  Serbian 
exports  more  than  doubled  during  the  next  year. 
This  showed  how  rapidly  Serbia  could  develop 
if  given  opportunity.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  one 
of  Serbia's  great  patriots  cried  out  in  despair: 
"I  would  give  my  life  if  I  could  take  my  country 


80  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

on  my  back  and  carry  her  away  from  the  hostile 
combination  which  surrounds  her!" 

The  only  solution  for  Serbia  was  a  port  on  the 
Adriatic  Sea,  to  be  reached  either  through  an 
autonomous  Albania,  or  better,  through  a  strip 
of  northern  x\lbania  ceded  to  Serbia  for  the  pur- 
pose. With  such  an  outlet  for  her  products  Serbia 
would  be  in  a  position  to  negotiate  a  commercial 
treaty  with  Austria-Hungary  in  which  not  quite 
all  the  advantages  would  be  on  the  side  of  Austria- 
Hungary,  as  had  always  been  the  case  heretofore. 
All  these  facts  show  what  inimitable,  unconscious 
humourists  inspired  our  "Literary  Bureau"  to 
circulate  at  this  time  the  slogan  that  "Austria 
was  again  called  upon  to  save  a  Balkan  people 
just  as,  through  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  she  had 
saved  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina."*  What  our 
"Literary  Bureau"  did  not  say  to  our  peoples 
and  to  Europe  in  general  was  that  our  diplomats 
and  statesmen  were  mortally  afraid  for  the  security 
of  the  old  empire.  With  the  prices  for  food  and 
all  necessaries  of  life  soaring  higher  every  year, 
with  discontent  increasing  among  its  peoples,  our 
statesmen  found  it  necessary  to  rule  Hungary 
by  the  brutal  force  of  a  Tisza  and  a  Lukacs;  Croa- 
tia and  Slavonia  with  the  dictatorship  of  a  Cuvaj; 
to  threaten  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  with  absolut- 


*Now  that  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  are  eliminated  from  the  Bal- 
kans, Italy  is  the  only  Power  which  threatens  to  continue  the  "meddling 
policy"  instead  of  leaving  the  Balkans  to  the  Balkanians. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  81 

ism;  to  establish  in  Croatia  a  military  dictatorship. 
Slovenia  and  Bohemia  were  placed  at  the  mercy 
of  German  reactionaries,  while  Galicia  was  in  a 
state  of  latent  revolt,  because  of  our  encourage- 
ment of  the  rivalry  between  the  Poles  andRuthenes. 
The  Slovaks  of  North  Hungary  were  dominated 
by  the  Magyars,  while  the  peasants  of  Hungary 
were  exploited  by  the  gentry  and  the  Jews. 

Events  followed  one  another  with  such  rapidity 
in  the  Balkan  War  that  it  was  impossible  for  our 
Foreign  Office  to  formulate  any  constructive  policy 
to  rob  the  Balkan  Allies  of  the  fruits  of  their  mili- 
tary successes.  Consequently  Count  Berchtold 
came  out  with  the  negative  policy  of  preserving 
the  "status  quo";  no  matter  what  the  military 
results  no  territorial  changes  should  be  allowed. 
In  order  to  avoid  complications  which  might  lead 
to  a  general  European  war  Russia  agreed  to  this 
policy.  The  most  apt  criticism  of  Berchtold's 
proposal  was  made  by  the  Serbian  Minister  of 
Finance,  Mr.  Pacu,  who  in  an  interview  in  Bel- 
grade, in  the  middle  of  October,  said:  "Europe 
is  for  peace,  but  there  is  no  peace.  Peace  in  the 
Balkans  is  a  never-ceasing,  an  exhausting  war. 
Europe  is  for  the  'status  quo,'  but  the  'status 
quo'  is  chaos.  Where  was  the  'status  quo'  when 
Austria-Hungary  annexed  Bosnia  and  Herzego- 
vina? Why  did  not  the  Great  Powers  guard  the 
'status  quo'  when  Italy  seized  Tripoli?  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  'status  quo'  does  not  exist 


82  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

for  the  Great  Powers.  They  remember  it  only 
when  our  needs  are  in  question.  They  treat  us 
as  they  treat  Moroccans.  They  conspire  behind 
our  backs  and  then  show  us  their  notes  or  more 
properly  present  us  with  their  commands,  saying: 
'Shut  up  you  there  in  the  Balkans.'  Europe 
regards  Turkey  as  its  heirloom,  but  the  Powers 
cannot  agree  over  the  division  of  the  spoils. 
Therefore  Europe  protects  Turkey."  But  even 
this  "status  quo"  formula  was  only  a  diplomatic 
cloak  with  which  to  hide  the  real  purposes  of  our 
diplomacy. 

On  the  night  of  October  9,  1912,  four  days 
before  Serbia,  Bulgaria,  and  Greece  presented  their 
ultimatum  to  Turkey,  a  joint  session  of  the  Aus- 
trian Ministerial  Council  took  place  which  lasted 
until  three  o'clock  the  next  morning.  At  this 
meeting  our  new  credits  for  armaments  were  dis- 
cussed and  it  was  agreed  to  ask  for  400,000,000 
kronen,  250,000,000  for  the  army  and  150,000,000 
for  new  men-of-war.  This  item  is  especially  signifi- 
cant since  these  ships  could  not  be  launched  in 
time  to  be  used  in  connection  with  any  war  that 
might  result  from  the  tension  existing  between 
the  Balkan  allies  and  Turkey.  It  was  a  patent 
absurdity  that  a  nation  of  52,000,000  inhabitants, 
rated  the  second  strongest  military  power  in  the 
world,  should  require  enormous  special  military 
credits  in  order  to  go  to  war  with  Serbia,  a  nation 
of  only  two  and  a  half  million  people.     The  long- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  83 

planned  war  against  Russia  was,  therefore,  the 
only  possible  explanation.  In  order  not  to  arouse 
the  suspicions  of  Europe  we  announced  the  formula 
that  we  were  going  to  place  our  southern  frontier 
on  a  "reinforced  peace  footing." 

Immediately  after  this  conference  the  "Liter- 
ary" Bureau  began  its  propaganda  for  the  Ball- 
platz.  In  reference  to  Serbia's  known  desire  for 
a  harbour  on  the  Adriatic  it  was  said  that  if  Serbia 
had  such  a  harbour  it  would  in  effect  be  a  Russian 
port.  As  soon  as  the  Balkan  War  opened  we 
started  to  sow  seeds  of  dissension  between  Bulgaria 
and  vSerbia.  One  inspired  article  said:  "After  the 
war  against  Turkey  what  will  happen  to  poor 
and  so-often  deluded  Serbia  at  the  hands  of  Bul- 
garia will  form  a  laughable  comedy  or  a  tragedy 
that  will  bring  tears  to  the  eyes  according  to  the 
sympathies  of  the  spectator."  In  order  to  offset 
this  propaganda  as  far  as  possible.  Doctor  Kramarz, 
the  Czech  leader  and  authority  on  foreign  affairs, 
made  a  speech  in  the  Austrian  Delegations  in  which 
he  said:  "If  the  Balkan  peoples  win  a  permanent 
victory  then  will  one  of  the  greatest  menaces  to 
the  peace  of  the  world  have  been  removed  with 
sacrifices  which  will  be  slight  in  comparison  with 
those  of  a  world  war.  This  is  the  psychological 
moment  for  Austria,  while  guarding  her  economic 
interests  in  the  Balkans,  to  win  the  sympathies 
of  the  Balkan  peoples." 

How  differently  our  Foreign  Office  viewed  the 


84  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

situation  was  shown  when  Count  Berchtold  spoke 
of  "Austria's  protectorate  over  the  Roman  Cathohc 
Church  in  Albania."  Freed  of  diplomatic  camou- 
flage this  meant  that  we  should  intervene  in  Al- 
bania so  as  to  be  able  to  attack  Serbia  on  her  flank 
and  come  to  the  rescue  of  Turkey.  Speaking  the 
same  day  in  the  Hungarian  Delegations  Berch- 
told said:  "The  monarchy  stands  for  the  'status 
quo  ante  bellum'.  We  have  in  the  Balkans  vital 
interests  touching  our  very  existence  and  we  are 
determined  to  guard  them  under  all  circum- 
stances." These  words  should  be  borne  strictly 
in  mind  because  they  are  almost  identical  with 
those  spoken  by  him  in  the  critical  days  of  March, 
1913.  Light  was  thrown  upon  what  was  meant 
by  the  guarding  of  "our  vital  interests"  by  an 
inspired  article  appearing  soon  after  the  speech 
which  said:  "Austria-Hungary  can  no  more  toler- 
ate the  formation  on  her  southern  frontier  of  a 
combination  of  powers  hostile  to  the  monarchy 
than  could  she  tolerate  being  cut  off  from  the 
great  thoroughfares  of  the  world."  In  the  same 
article  "our  attitude  toward  Russia  was  illuminated 
by  these  phrases:  "It  is  difficult  to  speak  of  Serbia 
without  thinking  of  Russia,"  and  again:  "It  is 
difficult  to  see  that  what  is  Serbian  is  not  at  the 
same  time  Russian." 

The  threadbare  rumour  that  our  Minister  in 
Belgrade  had  been  assassinated  was  again  cir- 
culated on  the  very  evening  when  Maximilian 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  85 

Harden,  the  great  German  publicist,  arrived  from 
Berlin  to  make  the  keynote  speech  in  this  campaign 
of  our  War  Party.  He  spoke  before  a  distinguished 
audience  which  included  the  Foreign  Minister, 
Count  Berchtold,  and  a  dozen  of  the  leading  gen- 
erals of  our  army.  He  first  referred  affectingly 
to  "the  sad  report  which  he  had  just  heard  that 
Kerr  Von  Ugron,  your  Minister  in  Belgrade,  has 
been  treacherously  murdered."  "Russia,"  he  said, 
"needs  at  least  a  year  and  a  half  from  the  purely 
military  standpoint  to  be  ready  for  war,  and  even 
then  it  will  be  a  great  question  whether  her  internal 
political  situation  will  permit  her  to  withdraw  from 
the  interior  her  few  trustworthy  elite  troops  with- 
out endangering  the  dynasty.  France,  on  her 
part,"  he  added,  "has  at  the  moment  no  powder." 
He  said  further:  "All  the  difficulties  which  x\ustria- 
Hungary  has  had  of  late  years  and  which  it  has 
to-day,  spring  from  the  fact  that  it  is  the  companion 
of  the  German  Empire,  both  together  forming 
the  Greater  Germany  which  knows  no  frontiers. 
Should  we  not  succeed  this  time  in  opening  the 
way  into  the  iEgean  and  the  Black  seas  for  Ger- 
manic hegemony,  then  have  we  reached  the  be- 
ginning of  the  end.  Germany  is  concerned  that 
the  way  to  Salonica  shall  not  be  blocked.  The 
question  is  not,"  he  continued,  "whether  one  is 
for  war  or  peace;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  our  duty 
to  make  war  at  the  time  best  suited  to  us  and  not 
our  enemies,  because  in  the  future  we  shall  not  be 


86  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

able  to  stave  off  the  war.  In  this  world-historic, 
grave,  psychological,  and  critical  moment  for 
Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  it  is  essential 
that  we  be  guided  by  a  single  purpose.  You 
may,"  he  said,  in  conclusion,  "draw  the  frontier 
to  which  you  will  permit  others  to  grow;  when 
you  have  once  found  that  line  I  solemnly  exhort 
you  not  to  give  in  a  hair's  breadth.  Do  not  let 
yourselves  be  induced  to  go  to  a  European  con- 
ference where  a  majority  would  decide  against 
you.  Every  war  is  justified,  even  against  a  small 
people,  if  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  guarding  national 
prestige  and  if  it  brings  advantage  to  your  coun- 
try." Some  of  us  recalled  this  speech  of  the  mis- 
sionary of  the  German  war  party  when  in  1914 
our  government  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  entreaties 
of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Russia  that  we  sub- 
mit our  controversies  with  Serbia  to  a  conference 
of  the  Great  Powers.  Also  when  the  German 
Kaiser  stated  that  he  could  not  be  a  party  to 
"dragging  his  ally  before  a  European  tribunal." 

This  speech  of  Harden's  applied  to  the  then- 
existing  conditions  and  to  the  philosophy  and 
principles  of  the  Austrian  and  German  war  par- 
ties. For  Austria  these  principles  and  this  phi- 
losophy of  international  relations  had  been  set  forth 
in  the  Oesterreichische  Rundschau*  in  an  article 
by  General  of  Infantry,  Emil  von  Woinovich,  en- 
titled: "War  Fear."    This  was  a  review  of  an 

*Vol.  30-31,  Jan.,  June,  1912,  pp.  243-8. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  87 

article  called  "The  Policy  of  Concentrated  Arma- 
ments" which  had  appeared  a  month  before  in 
Danzers  Armee  Zeitung  under  the  signature,  Salva- 
tor  R.  This  article  caused  a  sensation,  particularly 
because  Count  Julius  Andrassy,  Jr.,  published  at 
the  same  time  a  statement  in  which  he  said: 
"There  should  be  no  war  party  in  Austria-Hungary 
because  only  imbeciles  can  desire  war."  Salvator 
R.,  whose  opinions  were  admiringly  set  forth  by 
General  Woinovich,  an  x\ustrian  minor  edition 
of  Bernhardi,  held  the  opposite  view.  The  Gen- 
eral said:  "Without  regard  to  the  opinions  and 
sentiments  in  vogue,  Salvator  R.  opposes  with 
pitiless  logic  the  opinion  that  war,  as  is  generally 
believed,  is  the  worst  evil.  He  holds,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  the  peace  which  Europe  has  maintained 
for  a  generation  is  foul  stagnation.  By  war  he 
hopes  to  purify  the  social  and  political  atmosphere. 
The  many  unsolved  social  and  political  questions 
between  the  states  and  the  state  groups  of  Europe 
are  distasteful  to  him.  He  wants,  therefore,  a 
radical  solution  by  the  sword  after  the  example 
that  has  been  set  us  from  time  immemorial  by 
the  greatest  genuises  and  the  mightiest  states  and 
nations.  He  advocates  this  radical  solution  by 
the  sword  at  a  moment  when  the  political  constellations 
are  favourable  and  our  military  strength  is  at  its 
highest  point.  Salvator  R.  therefore  strongly  ad- 
vocates the  surprise  attach  as  a  matter  of  war 
policy,  which  surprise  attack  he  characterizes  as  an 


88  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

unprecedented  concentration  of  all  one's  forces  in  the 
space  of  a  few  years,  brought  about  through  a  supreme 
effort  of  all  the  military  and  political  forces  of  the  state, 
followed  at  once  by  an  attack  upon  the  enemy.  This 
artificial  calling  forth  of  war  must  not  be  considered 
as  frivolous  or  unprecedented.  It  has,  on  the 
contrary,  happened  many  a  time  in  the  last  hun- 
dred years.  For  instance, '  Cavour  brought  on 
deliberately  through  proddings  the  war  against 
Austria  in  1859,  as  is  admitted  by  the  work  of  the 
Italian  General  Staff  which  appeared  not  long  ago. 
Bismarck,  through  the  alteration  of  the  Ems  tele- 
gram, brought  about  the  Franco-Prussian  War  at 
the  moment  which  best  suited  him.  This  can  be 
attained  only  by  a  war  policy  which  stands  above 
the  situation,  dominating  and  leading  it,  a  policy 
which  is  concentrated  upon  well-defined  objectives 
to  be  achieved  at  definite  times,  after  the  manner 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  Napoleon,  Bismarck, 
Cavour,  or  Japan.  Also  we  may  say  that  Prince 
Kaunitz  with  wonderful  skill  precipitated  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  and  our  great  Empress,  Marie 
Theresa,  did  not  hesitate  a  moment  to  assume 
responsibility  for  it.  To  speak  of  the  horrors  of 
war  is  to-day,  at  least  in  wars  between  civilized 
people,  an  anachronistic  exaggeration.  Even  wars 
with  an  unhappy  issue  have  often  helped  the  re- 
birth of  states  which  were  on  a  decline,  as  was 
the  case  with  Prussia  in  1806  and  with  Austria 
in  1866.    It  seems  almost  as  if  states  and  peoples 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  89 

needed  wars  from  time  to  time,  because  otherwise 
they  would  sink  into  a  moral  morass." 

Not  long  after  Maximilian  Harden  had  delivered 
his  speech  in  Vienna  there  was  a  great  war  rally 
in  the  Ofener  Ilofburg,  the  royal  palace  in  Budapest, 
at  which  momentous  decisions  were  reached — 
decisions  calculated  to  preserve  the  peoples  of 
Austria-Hungary  from  sinking  into  the  ** moral 
morass"  so  dreaded  by  General  Woinovich  and  all 
the  other  members  of  the  war  party.  This  rally 
corresponded  precisely  both  in  personnel  and  sub- 
jects discussed  with  a  similar  gathering  held  in 
1908  when  it  was  thought  that  Serbia  and  Russia 
would  fight  rather  than  accept  the  illegal  seizure 
of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  The  personages  were 
identical,  that  is,  with  one  exception:  in  the  place 
of  the  late  Count  Aehrenthal  sat  his  successor, 
Count  Berchtold.  Then,  as  now,  Herr  Von 
Tschirschky,  the  German  Ambassador,  had  an 
audience  with  the  old  emperor  just  before  the  con- 
ference. From  a  high  personage  whom  I  may  not 
name  I  heard  these  comments  on  this  great  confer- 
ence. The  German  Ambassador  had  brought  to(oii]f' 
Emperor  Kaiser  Wilhelm's  carte  blanche  for  im- 
mediate war  upon  Serbia  and  Russia.  Francis 
Ferdinand  and  Berchtold  also  had  audiences  with 
the  Emperor  just  before  the  conference.  When 
the  conference  convened  under  the  presidency 
of  the  old  emperor.  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand, 
supported  by  Count  Berchtold,  the  former  Chief 


\j^ 


90  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

of  Staff,  General  Conrad  von  Hoetzendorf,  and 
the  joint  Minister  of  War  for  Austria-Hungary, 
carried  the  meeting  for  immediate  war,  or  war  as 
soon  as  it  could  be  precipitated.  To  Berchtold 
was  assigned  the  task  of  arranging  in  the  shortest 
possible  time  a  suitable  casus  belli.  Also  these 
questions  were  decided  at  this  conference:  an 
independent  Albania  should  be  created;  the  pro- 
posed Danube-Adriatic  Railway  should  run  ex- 
clusively through  Austrian  territory  and  not 
through  Serbian  territory  to  San  Giovanni  di 
Medua,  or  Durazzo,  as  desired  by  Serbia;  200,000 
men  from  the  military  classes  of  the  last  three  years 
in  six  army  corps  should  be  immediately  mobilized. 

In  order  that  Turkey  might  be  free  to  resist 
Bulgaria,  Serbia,  Greece,  and  Montenegro  with  all 
her  powers,  Germany  and  Austria  had,  some  weeks 
before  this  royal  war  conference,  vigorously  urged 
their  ally,  Italy,  to  make  peace  with  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  Italy  promptly  followed  this  highly  disin- 
terested advice  and  on  October  15,  1912,  signed 
with  Turkey  the  peace  treaty  of  Ouchy. 

In  commenting  on  this  imperial  conference,  the 
war  party's  paper,  the  Neue  Freie  Presse^  made 
this  significant  statement:  *'We  feel  that  a  great 
hour  is  near  in  which  will  fall  the  decision  for  war 
or  peace  and  that  the  destiny  of  this  ancient  empire 
and  the  peace  of  the  world  depend  upon  what  is 
now  happening  in  the  Ofener  Hofburg."  Also 
the  writer  sees  in  the  great  event  "the  sign  of  the 


AUSTRO-GER]VIAN  INTRIGUE  91 

clenched  hand  raised  about  to  strike."  This  was 
the  Austrian  version  of  "the  mailed  fist"  of  the 
German  Kaiser. 

In  order  to  carry  out  this  policy  we  needed  not 
only  the  backing  of  Germany  but  the  consent 
of  Italy.  Accordingly,  Count  Berchtold  had  gone 
to  Italy  where  on  the  23d  of  October,  1912,  at 
San  Rossore,  he  had  had  an  interview  with  the 
Italian  Foreign  Minister,  San  Giuliano,  who  as- 
sented to  our  so-called  status  quo  policy  in  the 
Balkans  in  recognition  of  our  friendly  neutrality 
during  Italy's  war  for  Tripoli. 

Five  days  later  the  Berliner  Tageblatt  announced 
that  it  had  learned  "from  leading  Viennese  circles" 
that  "the  monarchy  (Austria-Hungary)  will  ac- 
tively intervene  in  the  Balkans  if  the  status  quo 
should  not  be  observed."  A  week  later  we  dis- 
patched a  naval  division  to  Balkan  waters  "for 
the  protection  of  our  interests."  On  November 
5th  Marquis  di  San  Giuliano,  the  Italian  Foreign 
Minister,  went  to  Berlin  where  on  the  8th  he  had 
a  conference  with  Kiederlen-Waechter,  the  German 
Foreign  Secretary,  and  Ilerr  Von  Szogj^eny-Marich, 
our  Ambassador  in  Berlin.  It  was  the  day  after 
this  interview  and  just  before  the  imperial  war 
conference  in  Budapest  that  Herr  Von  Tschirschky, 
the  German  Ambassador,  had  his  famous  audience 
with  the  Emperor,  Francis  Joseph,  at  which  he 
delivered  his  imperial  master's  carte  blanche  for 
the  war. 


92  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

This  conference  produced  a  profound  effect 
upon  the  peoples  of  Austria-Hungary.  A  dread 
foreboding  of  calamity  fell  among  them  which  a 
friend  of  mine  described  as  like  the  "Chiliastic 
terror"  of  the  end  of  the  world  which  spread  dread 
throughout  Europe  in  the  one  thousandth  year 
after  the  birth  of  Christ.  This  foreboding  was  by  no 
means  abated  by  the  fulminations  of  the  Ballplatz 
press.  Baron  Chlumetzky,  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
Foreign  Minister,  issued  a  statement  in  which  he 
said:  "Serbia  must  know  that  Germany  stands 
back  of  Austria-Hungary  at  this  time  just  as  she 
did  at  the  time  of  the  annexation."  "Serbia  is 
the  pathfinder  of  Russia,"  was  another  official 
comment.  The  Budapesti  Naplo,  an  organ  of 
the  Hungarian  Government,  declared  openly: 
"Serbia  must  never  occupy  Albania.  This  is  so 
important  for  us  that  if  not  to-day,  then  to-morrow, 
we  must  go  to  war  to  prevent  it." 

\Miile  this  agitation  was  going  on,  the  Goeben 
of  subsequent  World  War  fame  suddenly  appeared 
off  Malta  on  November  12th.  The  transportation 
to  Bosnia  of  200,000  reservists,  just  called  to  the 
colours  from  all  parts  of  the  monarchy,  was  begun. 
At  the  same  time,  the  joint  Minister  of  Finance, 
Herr  Von  Bilinski  and  Premier  Wekerle  of  Hun- 
gary, conferred  with  representatives  of  the  large 
banking  and  credit  institutions,  to  facilitate  the 
raising  of  two  and  one  half  billion  kronen  for  a 
three  months'  campaign,  a  third  of  which  was 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  93 

designated  exclusively  for  the  mobilization  of  our 
troops.  The  gold  reserve  in  the  vaults  of  Austria- 
Hungary  was  about  to  be  commandeered  as  a  war 
treasure. 

But  while  official  Austria  was  straining  every 
nerve  to  start  the  war  the  subject  nationalities 
of  the  empire  were  violently  opposing  our  policy 
of  bellicose  meddling  in  the  Balkans.  Especially 
loud  in  this  condemnation  were  the  Czechs,  Croats, 
Slovenes,  and  the  Ruthenes  of  Gallcia.  So  de- 
termined was  this  protest  that  a  German  deputy 
in  the  Relchsrat  actually  advised  against  the  war 
because,  as  he  said,  *'the  great  majority  of  the 
Slavs  of  the  monarchy  are  opposed  to  it." 

But  these  protests  had  not  the  slightest  effect 
in  modifying  the  bellicose  course  of  our  govern- 
ment. The  Department  of  the  Interior  had  been 
given  the  task  of  lining  up  for  the  war  the  various 
political  parties.  The  Polish  deputies  from  Gall- 
cia were  told  that  events  in  Russian  Poland  might 
have  fatal  consequences  for  the  Austrian  Poles. 
Baron  Werburg,  our  Consul  General  in  "Warsaw, 
with  a  host  of  spies  and  agents  provocateurs,  working 
chiefly  through  Socialists  and  Jewish  organiza- 
tions, was  stirring  up  the  spirit  of  revolt  against 
the  Russian  Government.  By  the  same  means 
we  worked  incessantly  among  the  members  of  the 
Polish  Social  Democratic  Parliamentary  club  in 
Vienna.  So  successful  were  these  efforts  that  on 
October  2.5th  this  club  passed  the  following  resolu- 


94  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

tion:  *'As  the  legal  representatives  of  the  Polish 
people,  we  express  our  conviction  that  in  the  event- 
ual conflict  between  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia, 
all  the  forces  of  the  Polish  people  must  be  directed 
against  Russian  Czarism."  This  resolution  con- 
cluded with  an  appeal  to  the  Russian  Poles  to 
show  '*a  common  front  against  our  greatest 
enemy." 

At  the  same  time  leaflets  were  circulated,  through 
the  agency  of  our  Socialists,  among  the  Polish  work- 
men throughout  Russian  Poland  urging  them, 
when  called  to  the  colours  on  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities,  to  destroy  as  far  as  possible  all  military 
materials,  to  "spoil  everything  that  could  aid  the 
Russian  armies  in  their  advance,"  and  above  all, 
"to  let  themselves  be  taken  prisoners."  The  all- 
Polish  organ,  Slowo  Polskie  of  Lwow,  capital  of 
Galicia,  published  an  article  which  concluded  with 
these  words:  "In  holding  before  its  eyes  the  re- 
construction of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  the  Polish 
nation  must  hold  itself  in  readiness  for  war  at  any 
moment."  These  anti-Russian  and  pro-German 
protestations  occurred  at  the  very  time  when  the 
forcible  expropriation  of  Polish  estates  in  the 
German  Ostmark  was  at  its  height.  In  this  cam- 
paign the  Socialist,  Polish,  Jewish,  and  Pan-German 
press  was  ably  supported  by  organs  controlled 
by  the  Vatican.  Among  these  the  Oesterreichs 
Katholische  Sonntags  Blatt  came  out  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  first  Balkan  war  with  this  declaration: 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  95 

"Our  ideal  is  not  to  perpetuate  European  Turkey, 
but  to  bring  the  Balkan  Peninsula  into  the  posses- 
sion of  Catholic  Austria  and  the  Catholic  Church." 
This  ideal  was  thus  defended  in  their  issue  of  Octo- 
ber 27th:  "Just  as  a  violent  storm  refreshes  and 
cleanses  the  oppressive  atmosphere,  so  we  hold 
when  it  once  comes  to  real  war  the  moral  and 
economic  gain  to  Europe  will  in  the  end  be  very 
great.  The  social  democracy  is  not  yet  strong 
enough  to  prevent  a  war.  As  a  result  of  the  emo- 
tional pressure  of  a  European  war  it  will  break  to 
pieces  with  its  millions  of  casual  followers,  and  under 
the  same  pressure  modern  liberalism  will  also 
break  down.  It  will  not  hurt  Europe  if  its  condi- 
tions are  for  once  well  shaken  up."  Likewise 
the  organ  of  the  Catholic  movement  in  Germany, 
Das  Katholische  Deutscliland,  said  in  its  issue  of 
October  6,  1912,  only  a  few  days  before  the  out- 
break of  the  Balkan  War:  "But  Austria  will  not 
be  negligent.  It  has  already  determined  not  to 
allow  Serbia  to  take  the  Sandjak  of  Novi  Bazar 
[old  Serbia]  which  long  since  should  have  become 
Austrian.  Therefore  Austria  must  take  it.  AYith 
Austria's  troops  in  readiness  the  military  progress 
will  probably  continue  to  the  gates  of  Constanti- 
nople. And  we  can  only  exclaim:  'Good  luck  to 
you,  Austria!'  May  the  rotten  Turks  be  driven 
once  for  all  from  Europe!  The  Turks  who  in  ad- 
dition to  their  dirty  Islamisra  have  become  Free- 
Masons  and  on  that  account  doubly  hate  Christian- 


96  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

ity.  Constantinople  must  belong  to  Western  Euro- 
pean Christendom  and  not  remain  under  the  Turks 
or  go  to  the  Russians.  May  Austria  act  as  supreme 
arbitrator  between  the  Balkan  States,  for  which 
position  she  is  especially  fitted.  May  it  have  the 
glory  of  planting  again  the  Catholic  Cross  on  St. 
Sophia!  It  truly  deserves  this  glory  after  its 
century-old  strife  against  Islamic  culture.  Good 
luck  to  you,  Austria!  Don't  let  yourself  be  dis- 
turbed! England  is  afraid  of  us.  Russia  is  rent 
by  revolution.  France  has  spoiled  powder,  and 
has  not  invented  new  powder,  and  Germany  stands 
behind  thee.  Now  or  never  Russia's  game  may 
be  spoiled." 

This  pro-war  campaign  was  brought  to  its  high- 
water  mark  by  the  speech  of  the  German  Chancel- 
lor, Doctor  Bethmann-HoUweg,  delivered  on  the 
second  of  December,  1912.  He  said:  "Germany 
will  stand  at  the  side  of  its  ally,  Austria;  and,  if 
needs  be,  will  fight."  A  word  as  to  the  heredity 
of  Bethmann-Hollweg  will,  we  believe,  be  il- 
luminating at  this  point.  His  family  came  from 
the  Netherlands  whence  it  had  fled  to  escape  the 
persecution  of  the  Jews  to  the  little  town  of  Nas- 
sau near  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  Here,  where  the 
Bethmanns  may  be  traced  back  to  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  forefathers  of  Bethmann-Hollweg 
had  a  great  banking  house,  under  the  firm  name 
of  Bethmann,  which  handled  big  state  loans  for 
Austria.   (It  should  be  noted  here  that  at  Frankfort- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  97 

on-tlie-Main  was  also  located  the  original  Roths- 
child banking  house  which  also  handled  great  war 
loans  for  the  Austrian  Government.)  Emperor 
Francis  I  of  Austria  elevated  the  Bethmanns  to 
the  nobility.  Soon  after  this,  in  1854,  a  son  of 
the  banker  Bethmann  was  created  a  Baron  by  the 
King  of  Baden.  His  daughter  married  a  Johann 
Jakob  Hollweg,  who  became  the  founder  of  the 
family  of  Bethmann-Hollweg.  Two  of  Bethmann- 
Hollweg's  sisters  were  married  to  land  junkers  of 
East  Prussia. 

The  German  and  Magyar  press  in  both  empires 
'gloated  over  the  Chancellor's  admission  that 
Germany  would  "fight."  They  applauded  the 
wisdom  of  Germany's  decision  *'  not  to  allow  its  ally 
to  be  beaten  down  and  the  enemy  to  come  up  to  her 
own  walls,  but  to  be  beforehand  in  the  defence  of 
her  frontiers."  The  leader  of  the  National  Liberal 
Party  said  in  the  Reichstag,  in  support  of  the  Chan- 
cellor: ''Germany  must  stand  firmly  and  faith- 
fully beside  Austria."  The  press  of  both  govern- 
ments expressed  the  hope  that  both  Italy  and 
Rumania  might  help  them  in  the  coming  struggle 
and  that  tlie  smouldering  war  spirit  of  Turkey 
might  break  out  anew  into  flames.  This  was  just 
after  Turkey,  as  the  result  of  her  disastrous  defeats 
at  the  hands  of  the  Balkan  Alhes,  had  signed  with 
Bulgaria,  Serbia,  and  iNIontenegro  a  protocol  to 
last  until  the  conclusion  of  peace  negotiations. 
The  next  sensation  was  an  article  by  Baron  Chlum- 


98  THE  INSroE  STORY  OF 

etzky,  the  confidant  of  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand, 
in  which  he  described  a  meeting  between  the  heir 
to  the  throne  and  Kaiser  Wilhelm  in  the  latter's 
hunting  lodge  at  Springe.  In  commenting  upon 
the  interview  he  said:  "There  are  many  ways  of 
manifesting  friendly  feeling — Germany  chose  the 
strongest  and  places  herself  on  our  side  with  the 
whole  strength  of  her  political  and  military  weight." 
In  conclusion  he  said:  "Our  demands  must  not  be 
passed  upon  at  a  conference;  their  acceptance 
must  not  depend  upon  the  consent  of  a  European 
congress;  in  this  also  Germany  is  completely  on 
our  side."  This  was  the  standing  formula  of 
our  diplomacy,  as  we  have  seen  before  and  shall 
see  later,  to  look  upon  a  European  conference 
that  might  settle  peacefully  our  self-created  dis- 
putes with  Serbia  as  the  Devil  looks  upon  holy 
water. 

But  in  spite  of  all  the  fervid  enthusiasm  on  the 
part  of  the  government-controlled  press  there 
were  dissenting  voices  in  Germany  and  these  not 
alone  among  the  Socialists.  The  Taegliche  Rund- 
schau, for  instance,  a  paper  which  normally  sup- 
ported the  war  party,  said:  "By  going  to  war 
now  we  would  fall  into  the  position  of  having  to 
say  to  our  soldiers :  *We  are  going  to  war,  not  for 
God  and  the  Fatherland,  but  in  order  that  the 
Serbs  shall  not  get  possession  of  Durazzo!'"  Along 
the  same  line  the  Rheinisch-Westfaelische  Zeitung, 
a  paper  controlled  by  the  Krupp  interests,  said: 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  99 

"In  such  a  case  we  should  not  be  going  to  war  for 
the  vital  interests  of  Germany."  But  in  spite  of 
these  occasional  voices  of  dissent  the  war  spirit 
in  Germany  as  in  Austria  was  ever  growing  more 
clamorous. 


CHAPTER  V 

Count  Berchtold,  Aehrenthal's  Understudy, 
Concocts  the  Notorious  Prochaska  Affair 

how  the  third  attempt  to  start  the  war  failed 

NOTHING  ever  kindled  this  spirit  in  Austria 
as  did  the  single  word  *' fight"  as  uttered 
by  Bethmann-HoUweg.  The  so-called  Na- 
tionalverhand,  a  parliamentary  organization  repre- 
senting the  Pan-German  interests  in  Austria,  was 
jubilant  over  the  prospect  of  the  German  Empire 
being  entangled  with  us  in  a  life-and-death  struggle 
over  Albania.  Old  Francis  Joseph  had  completely 
given  himself  over  to  the  war  party  which  was  eager 
to  show  the  world,  and  particularly  Germany,  what 
a  perfect  military  machine  Austria  had  become. 
Everything  was  being  done  to  whip  up  to  the  high- 
est pitch  the  fighting  spirit  and  artificially  to  create 
the  jingo  atmosphere  (hurrastimmung).  In  the 
cabarets  and  even  in  the  disreputable  night  resorts 
the  playing  and  singing  of  the  Hapsburg  hymn  and 
the  Prince  Eugene  song  became  universal.  In  fact, 
when  on  December  16th  the  Balkan  Peace  Con- 
ference opened  in  London,  we  were  awaiting  the 
word  from  the  General  Staff  to  fire  the  first  shot. 

100 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRiaUE      .    101 

While  public  opinion  was  thus  being  lashed  to 
fever  heat,  on  the  16th  of  November  Count  Berch- 
told  made  the  following  pregnant  announcement: 
"For  many  days  now  Vienna  has  received  no 
news  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Consul  Prochaska  at 
Prisrent.  This  circumstance  has  caused  many 
anxieties  which  have  been  increased  by  the  fact 
that  the  Foreign  Ministry  has  no  information 
regarding  the  Consul  and  has  been  unable  to 
establish  communication  with  him."  On  the  same 
day  the  report  was  given  out  that  "The  Austro- 
Hungarian  Consul  in  Mitrovitza,  Herr  Ladislaus 
von  Tally,  lias  just  arrived  in  Budapest  after  a 
successful  flight  under  great  difficulties.  The 
Serbian  military  authorities  had  interned  the  Con- 
sul in  Mitrovitza  and  had  thus  sought  to  deprive 
him  of  his  personal  liberty."  Two  days  later  it 
was  announced  that  "the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs  will  in  the  immediate  future  demand  of 
the  Serbian  Government  an  explanation  of  these 
occurrences."  At  the  same  time  the  Foreign 
Office  announced  that  "Serbia's  treatment  of  our 
consuls  has  created  an  estrangement  in  diplomatic 
circles."  These  statements  were  made  the  very 
day  that  Doctor  Pasi6,  the  Premier  of  Serbia, 
declared  that  Serbia  must  have  an  outlet  to  the 
sea. 

On  December  4th  the  Neue  Freie  Presse  gave 
these  further  details  regarding  the  flight  of  Consul 
Von  Tahy:  "As  is  already  known,  the  Austro- 


102     ...  . : .;  X^J^.INSIDE'  STORY  OF 

Hungarian  tonsul  in  Mitrovitza,  Herr  Ladislaus 
von  Tahy,  fled  to  Uskub  on  account  of  the  attitude 
of  the  Serbian  mihtary  authorities.  From  Uskub 
Consul  Von  Tahy  made  his  way  to  Budapest  via 
Nish  and  Belgrade.  On  the  trip  he  met  a  Turkish 
journalist,  Galib  Bahtiar,  editor  of  the  Constan- 
tinople Sabah,  who,  during  his  stay  in  Vienna, 
gave  the  following  interesting  news  concerning 
the  flight  of  Herr  Von  Tahy  to  the  representatives 
of  the  Neue  Freie  Presse:  "In  a  cold  railway  car, 
without  light,  without  heat.  Consul  Von  Tahy 
and  myseK  made  the  trip  which  lasted  approxi- 
mately forty  hours.  During  all  this  time  we  were 
never  quite  sure  of  our  lives.  Consul  Von  Tahy 
spoke  pessimistically  regarding  the  Consul  Pro- 
chaska  affair.  He  said:  'In  a  coffee  house  a 
drunken  komitagi  [volunteer]  was  boasting  that 
Prochaska  was  murdered.  I  heard  with  my  own 
ears  that  fellow  tell  how  the  Serbs  invaded  the 
Consulate;  how,  when  Consul  Prochaska  had  pro- 
tested, a  dispute  followed  in  the  course  of  which 
the  Consul  was  struck  with  a  bayonet.  I  naturally 
can  only  say  what  I  heard'." 

The  same  day  it  was  announced  that  Consul 
Edl,  in  service  at  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
had  been  dispatched  to  Prisrent  to  investigate  the 
Prochaska  affair  on  the  spot,  and  that  a  report  on 
the  treatment  of  Consul  Prochaska  at  the  hands 
of  the  Serbs  would  be  issued  the  following  week. 
All  the  while  distressing  rumours  were  circulated 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  103 

and  published  as  to  what  had  befallen  the  Consul. 
Besides  the  rumour  of  his  murder  there  came  a  re- 
port that  he  had  been  seriously  wounded  and  that 
the  Austrian  flag  had  been  desecrated  by  Serbian 
soldiers,  and  then  came  word  that  the  Consul  had 
been  outraged  in  a  manner  too  vile  to  be  described. 
Even  the  old  emperor,  who  had  the  coolest  head  in 
the  small  group  of  men  with  whom  rested  all  de- 
cisions as  to  war  or  peace,  when  he  heard  these 
harrowing  stories,  exclaimed  in  anger:  "There  are 
some  things  which  cannot  be  tolerated!"  Even  the 
quietest  and  most  pacific  of  his  subjects,  particu- 
larly the  people  of  Vienna  and  Budapest,  began  to 
shake  their  heads  and  say  that  the  honour  of  the 
empire  could  no  longer  tolerate  such  barbarities. 
The  proofs  only  were  required  to  make  the  people 
themselves  demand  war  in  reprisal  for  the  inhuman 
treatment  of  our  representative. 

On  December  5th,  toward  evening,  the  report 
spread  that  on  the  following  day  the  renewal  of 
the  Triple  Alliance  would  be  officially  announced. 
It  was  universally  felt  in  well-informed  circles 
that  we  were  on  the  verge  of  war,  not  war  against 
Serbia  alone,  but  war  against  Serbia  and  Russia, 
which  would  mean  the  beginning  of  a  world  war. 
Never  before,  not  even  at  the  time  of  the  annexa- 
tion crisis  in  1908-09,  were  there  such  wild  and 
contradictory  rumours  afloat  as  on  that  night. 
The  "Literary"  Bureau  announced  that  "Count 
Berchtold  is  pursuing  a  peace  policy  which  can 


104  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

only  be  shattered  by  Serbia's  obstinacy.  Count 
Berchtold  will  only  abandon  that  policy  when  all 
diplomatic  means  have  failed  and  the  principle 
of  the  German  military  writer,  Herr  Von  Klause- 
vitz,  comes  into  effect;  namely,  that  'war  is  the 
continuation  of  politics  by  other  names',"  The 
renewal  of  the  Triple  Alliance  was  officially  an- 
nounced on  December  7,  1912,  in  the  following 
form:  **The  treaty  of  alliance  concluded  be- 
tween the  sovereigns  and  governments  of  Austria- 
Hungary,  Germany,  and  Italy  has  been  renewed 
without  any  alteration."  On  the  same  day  the 
various  political  parties  began  to  announce  in  the 
Reichsrat  their  position  on  the  war  with  Serbia 
and  Russia  which  was  assumed  to  be  inevitable 
a  Lid  immediate. 

Also  at  this  time  the  Ballplatz  press  issued  this 
warning  to  Serbia:  "Serbia  should  hasten  to  clear 
her  international  conscience  ere  it  be  too  late, 
or,  rather,  ere  Consul  Edl  returns  from  Prisrent. 
Then  it  might  be  too  late  and  then  very  likely  the 
accusation  which  would  be  laid  before  the  public 
of  Europe  would  be  such  as  to  deepen  the  impres- 
sion of  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  a  policy  of 
peace  toward  such  a  neighbour  as  Serbia."  Si- 
multaneously the  Prochaska  incident  was  again 
brought  up.  "In  regard  to  the  Prochaska  affair, 
it  is  reported  in  political  circles  that  the  report 
of  Consul  Edl  is  already  substantially  in  the  hands 
of  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.     But  since  in 


AUSTRO-GERIMAN  INTRIGUE  105 

so  Important  and  delicate  a  matter  it  is  necessary 
to  give  a  complete  picture  of  what  occurred,  the 
final  personal  report  of  Consul  Edl,  who  examined 
thoroughly  on  the  spot  all  phases  of  the  episode, 
is  awaited.  Consul  Edl  is  still  making  the  neces- 
sary investigations  in  Prisrent.  After  his  return 
to  Vienna  it  will  be  possible  to  form  a  final  judg- 
ment on  the  treatment  of  the  Consul  by  the  Serbian 
authorities.  At  such  time,  it  is  said,  our  govern- 
ment, if  the  circumstances  demand  it,  will  not  fail 
to  act  in  the  matter  with  the  utmost  energy." 

Our  "Literary  "  Bureau  in  announcing  on  Decem- 
ber 6th  that  the  Powers  were  planning  a  conference 
of  ambassadors  on  Balkan  affairs  to  sit  in  London 
during  the  deliberations  of  the  Balkan  Peace  Con- 
ference, made  this  significant  remark :  "Difficulties 
may  arise  in  this  conference  owing  to  Serbia's 
injury  to  Austrian  prestige  and  violations  of  in- 
ternational law  in  the  Consul  Prochaska  affair." 
About  this  time  an  enterprising  Budapest  paper 
published  its  recommendations  for  the  punish- 
ment of  Serbia  in  the  Prochaska  affair.  These 
suggestions  were  so  acceptable  to  the  war-party 
press  that  they  were  widely  copied  throughout 
both  Austria  and  Germany.  They  were  briefly 
as  follows:  "First,  all  the  culprits  should  be 
severely  punished;  second,  King  Peter  should  be 
obliged  to  crave  forgiveness  through  diplomatic 
channels  for  the  affront  to  the  monarchy;  third, 
the  Serbian  Crown  Prince  should  be  required  to 


106  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

ask  the  forgiveness  of  Consul  Prochaska  personally; 
fourth,  the  Serbian  Government  should  agree  to 
pay  the  Consul  by  way  of  damages  a  life  annuity 
of  70,000  crowns  annually."  In  connection  with 
this  final  provision  it  should  be  mentioned  that 
Prochaska  was  a  young  and  vigorous  man.  Mean- 
time the  German  war  press  was  echoing  that  of 
Austria  and  Hungary.  To  cite  a  single  example 
typical  of  many  others  the  Deutsche  Tages  Zeitung 
of  Berlin  declared  itself  in  full  accord  with  the 
Chancellor's  willingness  to  "fight"  and  added, 
"The  case  of  Consul  Prochaska  is,  according  to  our 
view,  a  casus  belli;  Germany  must  act  before  it  is 
too  late  and  must  stand  for  the  furthest  possible 
consequences  of  the  alliance  with  Austria." 

Our  previous  possible  war  aims  having  been  re- 
moved by  the  unexpected  and  undesired  acceptance 
by  Serbia  and  Russia  of  our  status  quo  formula 
left  our  diplomacy  in  the  embarrassing  position 
of  having  everything  in  readiness  for  the  war  ex- 
cept a  plausible  and  defensible  cause  and  purpose. 
They  hastily  set  about  to  repair  this  oversight. 
Their  efforts  were  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  a 
most  modern  and  appealing  object.  Poor,  oppressed 
Albania,  which  had  so  long  been  ground  under  the 
heel  of  the  Turk,  was  now  about  to  be  seized  and 
forced  into  vassalage  to  the  tyrannous  government 
of  Serbia.  Albania,  small  and  defenceless  though 
she  was,  should  be  rescued.  She  should  be  made 
self-governing — an  autonomous  principality.    The 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  107 

timely  discovery  was  made  that  an  Albanian  prince 
some  hundreds  of  years  before  had  been  distantly 
related  to  the  Hapsburgs.  That  made  our  duty 
even  more  apparent.  To  be  sure  the  scant  infor- 
mation we  were  able  to  glean  about  our  newproteges 
was  not  very  reassuring.  They  were  wild  mountain 
tribes  numbering  eight  to  nine  hundred  thousand 
people,  mostly  Mohammedans,  who  had  spent 
most  of  their  abundant  leisure  serving  as  mercen- 
aries in  the  armies  of  Abdul  Hamid,  the  Red  Sultan. 
They  had  no  literature  and  not  even  a  practical 
alphabet.  Even  their  first  grammar  had  been  com- 
piled by  a  studious  young  man  in  the  employ  of 
our  Foreign  Office ! 

Carping  critics  might  have  found  our  sudden 
solicitude  for  these  down-trodden  mountaineers 
somewhat  inconsistent  with  our  traditional  cus- 
toms and  practices  at  the  time.  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina, which  we  had  rescued  from  the  Sultan 
by  means  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878,  had  been 
so  ungrateful  as  to  permit  themselves  to  grow  ever 
poorer,  more  illiterate  and  discontented.  Accord- 
ing to  the  official  statistics  of  1910  there  were 
among  the  inhabitants  of  Bosnia,  seven  to  twenty 
years  of  age,  87^  per  cent,  of  illiterates,  which  il- 
lustrates the  nature  of  the  cultural  efficiency  of 
the  Black -Yellow  Party  which  was  alleged  as  the 
justification  for  the  annexation  of  these  provinces. 
Things  had  come  finally  to  the  point  where  absolu- 
tism was  threatened  to  curb  their  waywardness. 


108  THE  INSroE  STORY  OF 

Croatia  and  Slavonia  were  under  dictatorships. 
In  Hungary  two  thirds  of  the  population  were  pro- 
testing at  being  turned  over  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  the  remaining  third — the  ruHng  Magyar  land 
junkers.  In  Galicia  Poles  and  Ruthenes  were  at 
loggerheads.  In  Slovenia  a  handful  of  German 
land  junkers  were  dominating  the  country.  Every- 
where, in  fact,  national  self-assertion  and  develop- 
ment were  being  suppressed  with  an  iron  hand. 
But  our  statesmen  had  robust  consciences  and 
found  little  diflSculty  in  adjusting  themselves  to 
the  equivocal  situation.  Whatever  its  sentimental 
shortcomings  it  was  evident  that  an  autonomous 
Albania  would  furnish  an  inexhaustible  supply  of 
provocations  for  war  as  well  as  a  constant  men- 
ace to  our  hated  little  neighbour,  Serbia.  At  all 
events,  we  certainly  could  not  tolerate  the  dismem- 
berment of  European  Turkey  without  satisfying 
the  dynastic  lust  for  conquest  of  our  Hapsburg 
rulers. 

And  Germany,  too,  made  the  discovery  that  her 
imperial  interests  would  be  jeopardized  by  per- 
mitting Serbia  to  hold  a  port  on  the  Adriatic.  So 
the  Kaiser  and  Bethmann-Hollweg  and  their 
followers  also  became  solicitous  for  the  autonomy 
of  Albania.  Consequently  the  "war  maniacs"  or 
"Black- Yellow  jugglers  of  Vienna,"  as  they  were 
called  by  the  people  at  large,  were  not  only  backed 
up  but  egged  on  by  their  confederates  in  Berlin. 

As  has  been  said,  no  sooner  had  the  renewal 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  109 

of  the  Triple  Alliance  been  announced  than  the 
various  political  parties  in  the  lleichsrat  began  to 
proclaim  their  attitude  in  the  war  against  Serbia 
and  Russia  which  they  assumed  was  about  to  be- 
gin. Herr  Liebermann,  the  spokesman  of  the 
Polish  Social  Democratic  Party,  declared:  "The 
Polish  Social  Democrats  are  not  willing  to  back 
up  the  imperialism  of  Serbia;  they  will  fulfil  their 
duty  and  stand  faithfully  at  Austria's  side  if  she 
is  attacked  by  Russia."  Whereupon  Herr  Karl 
Renner,  a  member  of  the  German  Social  Demo- 
cratic Party  of  Austria  (later  the  first  Chancellor 
of  the  Austrian  Republic)  sprang  to  his  feet  and 
declared  that  "the  German  Social  Democrats,  too, 
are  in  accord  with  the  declaration  of  comrade 
Liebermann  and  will  act  as  one  man  in  using 
all  their  powers  against  'Russian  czarism'."  This 
became  the  standard  formula  for  their  approval 
of  the  World  War  in  1914.  These  declarations 
were  surprising  to  the  superficial  observer  since 
the  Social  Democrats — comprising  in  their  member- 
ship Germans,  Poles,  Ruthenes,  Czechs,  Slovenes, 
and  Croats — had  in  a  plenary  sitting  put  them- 
selves on  record  as  opposed  to  a  European  war.* 

I  was  one  of  the  first  to  question  the  genuineness  of  the  peace  professions 
of  these  so-called  socialists,  and  during  the  first  year  of  the  war  I  prepared  a 
pamphlet  entitled:  "The  Betrayal  of  Socialism"  to  expose  these  false  apostles 
of  the  socialist  doctrine.  In  this  paper  I  pointed  out  that  there  was  collu- 
sion between  the  war-mad  Pan-(Jermanists  of  Germany  and  Austria  and 
the  i)eace-mad  socialist  extremists  of  Russia.  My  prophecies  have  been 
all  too  well  fulfille<l  by  the  first  and  second  ilu^ian  Revolutions  of  1917,  and 
their  lamentable  consequences. 


110  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

At  the  same  time  that  the  Socialist  deputies 
in  the  Reiehsrat  were  declaring  themselves  for  the 
war,  word  reached  Vienna  that  the  foremost  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Ukrainian  parties  of  Galicia 
had  held  a  meeting  in  Lvow  (capital  of  Galicia) 
where  they  had  proclaimed  the  following:  "It  is 
vital  to  the  Ukrainian  nation  that  in  a  serious  con- 
flict between  Austria  and  Russia  the  whole  Ukrain- 
ian nation  should  stand  united  and  firmly  for 
Austria."  After  all  this  the  resolution  which 
follows  of  the  always-servile  Austrian  Poles  oc- 
casioned little  surprise.  "In  the  present  serious 
political  situation,  the  Polish  Club  proclaims  that 
all  Polish  people  inhabiting  Austria  are  holding 
themselves  ready  and  united,  as  the  occasion  may 
demand  it,  to  fulfil  their  duty  with  all  their  powers 
toward  Austria  and  her  magnanimous  and  just 
monarch,  who  shows  understanding  of  our  feelings 
and  recognition  of  our  heavy  fate  and  our  national 
rights,  and  who  places  his  confidence  in  us.  In 
this  unity  with  the  state  and  its  monarch,  as  also 
through  reliance  upon  our  own  powers  and  the 
consciousness  of  our  national  aspirations,  we  see 
the  guarantee  of  a  better  future."  The  foregoing 
expressions  of  blind  loyalty  show  how  well  and 
thoroughly  had  the  Department  of  the  Interior 
performed  its  task  in  bringing  the  political  parties 
into  line  for  the  war.  The  only  peoples  of  the  Dual 
Monarchy  who  remained  in  irreconcilable  opposi- 
tion to  the  war  were  the   Czecho-Slovaks,   the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  111 

Slovenes,  the  Serbs,  and  the  great  majority  of  the 
Croats. 

When  Count  Forgach,  Otto  Franz,  Tanzos,  and 
the  others  were  removed  from  their  posts  in  Bel- 
grade for  their  failure  to  bring  on  the  war  in  1908- 
1909,  their  most  active  collaborator  in  Vienna,  save 
Count  Aehrenthal  himself.  General  Conrad  von 
Hoetzendorf,  was  also  deposed  from  his  position 
as  Chief  of  the  General  Staff.  He  was  the  first 
of  the  faithful  to  be  reinstated.  On  the  tenth 
of  December,  1912,  the  Emperor  reappointed  him 
Chief  of  Staff.  At  the  same  time  a  new  joint 
Minister  of  War  was  appointed.  Both  appointees 
were  favourites  of  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand. 
Their  appointment  indicated  that  the  Archduke 
and  the  war  party  had  gained  complete  sway  over 
the  old  emperor.  Hoetzendorf  was  a  man  after 
Francis  Ferdinand's  own  heart.  He  looked  upon 
war  as  the  panacea  for  all  the  many  ills  of  the 
empire.  While  he  was  particularly  set  upon  war 
against  Serbia  and  Russia  he  had  in  1911  secretly 
urged  war  upon  our  ally,  Italy,  while  her  strength 
was  being  drained  by  the  Tripoli  campaign.  He 
apparently  advocated  this  war  on  the  ground  that 
any  war,  even  one  against  an  unoffending  ally, 
is  better  than  no  war  at  all. 

This  sudden  change  in  the  highest  military 
functionaries  on  the  verge  of  war  still  further 
alarmed  the  people.  And  they  were  by  no  means 
reassured  when  the  very  papers,  which  had  previ- 


112  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

ously  assured  them  that  the  retired  Minister  and 
Chief  of  Staff  were  so  nearly  omnipotent  that  to 
question  their  abihty  was  high  treason,  now  turned 
upon  them  and  represented  them  as  unrehable  and 
incapable.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Ballplatz  press 
now  used  every  device  known  to  the  gentle  art  of 
newspaper  reputation  making,  to  elevate  General 
Hoetzendorf  to  the  position  of  a  national  hero. 
It  was  this  heroic  jQgure  who  in  the  summer  of  1918 
was  forced  to  resign  because  of  Austria's  military 
failures.  On  the  day  after  these  changes  in  the 
high  command  a  conference  of  ministers  was  held 
under  the  presidency  of  the  Emperor  at  the  Schoen- 
brunn  Palace  in  Vienna. 

Meanwhile,  we  were  spending  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions on  war  preparations.  When  the  home  money 
market  was  exhausted  we  tried  to  raise  money 
abroad.  It  is  significant  that  we  were  unable  to 
secure  loans  either  in  Paris  or  London.  Finally  we 
turned  to  American  capitalists,  and  after  long  ne- 
gotiations obtained  the  paltry  sum  of  $25,000,000  at 
the  exorbitant  rate  of  6|  per  cent.  This  reduced 
us  to  the  level  of  China  in  point  of  international 
credit.  Internally  our  financial  and  industrial 
affairs  went  from  bad  to  worse.  Our  banks 
declined  to  loan  money  for  construction  and  in- 
dustrial development.  The  people,  too,  were 
withdrawing  their  savings  from  the  banks.  The 
Government  tried  to  revive  the  economic  life  by 
publishing  all  kinds  of  reassuring  news.     No  one, 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  US 

apparently,  paid  any  attention  to  these  assurances. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  reservists  and  young  men 
about  to  reach  mihtary  age  hastily  left  the  coun- 
try. Families  sold  their  homes,  their  land,  their 
personal  effects,  anything  to  raise  a  little  money 
so  they  could  escape  before  the  storm  cloud  of  war 
burst  upon  them.  In  panic  they  fled  to  America, 
Canada,  South  America,  Brazil,  the  Argentine,  the 
Falkland  Islands,  and  even  as  far  as  New  Zealand 
and  South  Africa.  Finally,  the  Hungarian  Govern- 
ment, alarmed  by  the  exodus,  announced  that  no 
further  passports  would  be  issued  to  men  of  mili- 
tary age  or  to  those  who  would  come  to  military  age 
during  the  next  year.  This  did  not  stop  the  exodus 
but  merely  kept  the  police  busy  arresting,  dragging 
back,  and  locking  up  the  would-be  evaders  of  mili- 
tary service. 

Along  the  Serbian  frontier  the  plans  for  invasion 
were  prepared  in  the  minutest  detail.  An  inces- 
sant stream  of  ammunition  was  poured  into  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina  toward  the  Serbian  and  Mon- 
tenegrin frontiers.  The  Joint  Minister  of  Finance, 
who  was  also  Governor-General  of  Bosnia  and  Her- 
zegovina, asked  the  Sabor  (Diet)  of  these  provinces 
to  vote  in  all  haste  the  necessary  credits  for  new 
railways  and  roads  of  which  the  greater  number 
were  to  be  constructed  between  the  rivers  Sava 
and  Drina,  where,  as  the  events  of  the  World 
War  showed,  the  offensive  against  Serbia  started. 
These  credits  were  asked  at  the  very  time  when 


114  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

the  Prochaska  affair  was  started.  General 
Potiorek,  Governor  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina, 
the  very  man  who  in  1914-1915  led  our  armies 
of  invasion  into  Serbia,  in  summoning  the  heads 
of  the  various  parties  before  him  said:  "We  are 
on  the  eve  of  the  war  and  it  is  urgent  to  vote 
in  the  course  of  the  next  few  days  the  credits  for 
these  railways  and  the  annual  budget."  In  Gali- 
cia  enormous  quantities  of  war  materials  of  all 
kinds,  including  guns,  ammunition,  bridges,  and 
pontoons,  were  stored  in  Cracow,  Przemysl,  and  in 
Lvow,  the  capital.  These  Galician  preparations 
obviously  were  not  directed  against  Serbia  but 
against  Russia.  We  even  made  final  preparations 
against  attack  from  the  side  of  Italy.  This  surely 
was  farsighted  on  the  part  of  our  military  authori- 
ties. Ever  since  the  annexation  crisis  of  1908 
these  preparations  had  been  going  forward  uninter- 
ruptedly, and  every  branch  of  our  military  es- 
tablishment had  been  kept  on  a  war  footing; 
312,000,000  kronen  was  appropriated  by  the 
Reichsrat  for  new  super-dreadnaughts  for  the  navy. 
Since  this  money  could  not  be  had  quickly  enough. 
Baron  Rothschild,  head  of  the  famous  Jewish  bank- 
ing house  in  Vienna,  the  money  power  behind  the 
throne,  after  repeated  conferences  with  the  Arch- 
duke Francis  Ferdinand,  advanced  the  money  for 
these  ships.  As  a  result  they  were  known  as  the 
"Rothschild  dreadnaughts." 
The  joint  War  Minister,  on  top  of  all  this,  de- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  115 

manded  and  received  a  hundred  million  kronen 
additional  for  general  military  purposes,  for  that 
year  and  for  each  succeeding  year  so  long  as  in  his 
opinion  it  might  be  needed.  Even  these  vast 
expenditures,  relatively  to  our  available  resources, 
were  contemptuously  referred  to  by  Francis 
Ferdinand  as  "miserable  lumps."  The  obligations 
for  personal  military  service  were  increased  pro- 
portionately with  the  taxes.  Reservists  who  had 
previously  been  called  upon  for  not  more  than  eight 
weeks'  military  service  in  a  year  were  now  called 
to  the  colours  for  from  two  to  three  years'  service. 
The  crowning  blow  to  the  rapidly  waning  liberties 
of  the  unhappy  subjects  of  Francis  Joseph  came 
through  the  enactment  of  the  "Kriegsleistungs- 
Gesetz,"  a  law  which  from  the  beginning  of  mobil- 
ization gave  the  military  authorities  complete 
power  over  not  only  the  property  but  the  person 
of  every  man.  By  this  law  were  swept  aside  the 
rights  of  labour,  the  rights  of  travel,  the  rights  of 
assembly — in  fact,  all  personal  liberty  of  any  kind. 
It  should  be  realized  that  this  law  was  made  in 
time  of  peace  and  not  under  the  pressure  of  war. 
This  law,  which  carried  us  to  the  furthest  possible 
extreme  of  military  despotism,  was  supported  in 
the  Reichsrat  by  all  parties,  including  the  Clerical 
Party,  the  Christian  Socialists,  and  the  German 
Liberals. 

Our  progress  in  a  military  way  was  accompanied 
by  alarming  retrogression  in  every  other  direction. 


116  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

We  had  no  money  for  schools  and  hospitals.  The 
social  insurance  laws  could  be  only  partially  en- 
forced because  of  lack  of  funds.  State  officials 
and  employees  were  wretchedly  paid.  Our  scien- 
tists were  forced  to  go  to  other  countries  in  order  to 
find  suitable  conditions  for  their  work.  Meanwhile, 
poverty  and  misery  were  rapidly  increasing  through- 
out the  empire,  particularly  in  the  cities.  The  an- 
nual report  of  the  Vienna  W aermestuhen  Verein, 
a  society  to  provide  warming-rooms  for  the  poor, 
gives  some  idea  of  the  conditions  among  the  poor  of 
the  capital.  Between  November,  1911,  and  March, 
1912,  a  total  of  1,000,218  persons  came  to  these 
rooms,  among  whom  were  209,500  women  and 
597,000  children.  In  Vienna  alone  98,857  people 
were  without  shelter.  An  average  of  5,000  children 
daily  came  to  these  shelters  and  stood  in  line  for 
hours  to  receive  the  free  soup  and  bread.  Hun- 
dreds of  children  spent  the  nights  in  these  rooms, 
huddled  or  sitting  on  benches  in  corners,  without 
beds,  bedding,  nightclothes,or  sleeping  accommoda- 
tions of  any  kind.  For  the  meals  of  the  5,000 
children  and  an  almost  equal  number  of  adults 
the  City  Council  paid  6,000  crowns  daily,  or  about 
half  a  cent  per  person. 

One  may  imagine  how  the  more  intelligent  of 
these  poor  people  felt  when  they  heard  of  our 
enormous  expenditures  on  military  preparations — 
preparations  against  little  Serbia  so  far  as  was 
officially  admitted — Serbia,  one  of  whose   crimes 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  117 

was  her  desire  to  export  food  into  our  empire  and 
sell  it  to  our  hungry  people. 

In  these  dreary  December  days,  while  the  poor 
shivered  and  starved,  political  events  occurred 
with  such  rapidity  that  it  was  difficult  to  keep  track 
of  them.  Almost  every  utterance  made  or  in- 
spired by  the  Government  contained  references 
to  the  outrages  committed  by  the  Serbs  on  Consul 
Prochaska.  P'inally,  however,  a  lieutenant  field 
marshal,  in  no  way  connected  with  the  Foreign 
Office,  issued  this  statement:  "According  to  my  in- 
formation Prochaska  is  all  right,  and  the  rumours 
about  his  being  greatly  misused  are  exaggerated; 
nevertheless  the  treatment  accorded  him  by  the 
Serbs  did  constitute  an  infraction  of  international 
law."  Thus  came  to  an  abrupt  termination  the 
supposed  sufferings  of  Consul  Prochaska — sufferings 
which  had  aroused  the  indignation  and  sympathy 
of  almost  everyone  from  the  old  emperor  down 
to  his  humblest  subjects.  A  few  days  later  it  was 
given  out  that  Consul  Edl  had  returned  from  his 
investigation  of  the  Prochaska  affair  and  that  an 
official  report  on  the  matter  would  soon  appear. 
Not  long  after  this  the  "Imperial  and  Royal  Vienna 
Telegraph  (Correspondence  Bureau"  issued  the 
long  and  anxiously  awaited  report.  It  read:  "The 
investigation  which  was  conducted  by  a  delegate 
sent  by  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Ministry  of  Foreign 
Affairs  concerning  the  affair  of  Consul  Prochaska 
in   Prisrent,   which   has   been   somewhat  delayed 


118  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

owing  to  the  great  distances  and  the  situation 
brought  about  by  the  war  [the  Balkan  War]  has 
now  been  completed.  On  the  basis  of  this  report 
it  can  be  said  to  our  satisfaction  that  the  rumours 
which  have  been  in  circulation^  according  to  which 
Consul  Prochaska  had  been  held  a  prisoner  at  his 
post  and  had  been  maltreated  by  the  Serbian 
authorities,  are  totally  unfounded.  The  accusa- 
tion made  in  turn  by  the  Serbian  Government 
against  the  above-named  consular  functionary, 
and  the  reasons  given  for  requesting  his  transfer — 
namely,  that  Serbian  troops  had  been  fired  upon 
on  entering  Prisrent  from  the  building  of  the 
Austro -Hungarian  Consulate,  have  also  been 
found  to  be  totally  false.  The  Serbian  military 
authorities  were  found,  however,  to  have  com- 
mitted an  offence  against  international  law  in  their 
conduct  toward  Consul  Prochaska  and  the  person- 
nel of  the  Consulate.  This  infringement  will  be 
made  known  to  the  Royal  Serbian  Government  with 
a  request  for  adequate  satisfaction.  There  is,  how- 
ever, no  ground  for  the  belief  that  the  Royal  Serbian- 
Government,  which  has  shown  itself  very  responsive 
to  the  mission  of  the  delegate  of  the  Ministry 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  will  refuse  such  satisfaction."* 

*It  is  a  significant  fact  that  at  this  critical  time  Austrian  monitors  and 
gunboats  on  the  Danube  were  flashing  their  search-lights  on  Belgrade  at 
night  and  were  passing  within  a  few  yards  of  passenger  boats.  Machine-gun 
practice  by  Austrian  soldiers  along  the  shore  subjected  travellers  to  serious 
inconvenience.  Shots  fired  from  the  Austrian  shore  imperilled  Serbian 
peasants  working  in  the  fields.  All  of  these  manoeuvres  were  calculated  to 
produce  some  frontier  "incident"  which  could  be  used  as  a  pretext  for  war. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  119 

Thus  was  our  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  finally 
obliged  to  repudiate  the  alleged  persecution  of 
Consul  Prochaska  which  had  for  so  long  been 
utilized  to  arouse  the  war  spirit  of  our  long-suffer- 
ing people.  Knowing  Consul  Prochaska  as  I  did 
and  realizing  that  he  had  in  him  none  of  the  stuff 
of  which  martyrs  and  heroes  are  made,  I  had  from 
the  first  been  very  much  amused  at  the  highly 
imaginary  and  dramatic  accounts  of  his  hardships 
and  heroism.  When  I  learned  what  had  actually 
happened  I  was  still  more  amused.  While  this 
martyred  hero  was,  in  the  imagination  of  Francis 
Joseph  and  his  credulous  subjects,  lying  wounded 
and  shockingly  disfigured  at  his  lonely  post  in  the 
Black  Mountains  of  the  tottering  Turkish  Empire, 
he  was,  in  fact,  sitting  quietly  in  his  official  resi- 
dence in  the  best  of  health  and  spirits,  carefully 
guarded  by  stately  Jcavasses  (guards)  in  their 
gorgeous  Montenegrin  uniforms,  leisurely  sipping 
his  coffee  a  la  Turque,  prepared  by  his  Balkan 
servants,  while  his  little  companion  of  the  Viennese 
demi-monde,  with  her  bright  blue  eyes  and  flaxen 
curls,  anticipated  the  slightest  wish  of  her  lord  and 
master.  All  of  which  goes  to  show  how  hard  it  is 
to  avoid  being  a  hero  if  the  Powers  That  Be  so 
will  it. 

Why  the  Prochaska  affair  had  been  abandoned 
as  a  possible  casus  belli  was  soon  apparent.  A 
few  days  later,  on  the  twenty-first  of  December, 
the  Conference  of  Ambassadors — that  nightmare 


120  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

of  the  Ballplatz,  which  had  been  convened  In 
London,  at  the  instance  of  Sir  Edward  Grey,  the 
British  Foreign  Secretary,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
Balkan  War  from  becoming  a  world  war — ^had 
recommended  that  Serbia  accept  Austria's  harsh 
demands,  renounce  her  claim  to  the  strip  of  ter- 
ritory on  the  Adriatic  Sea,  and  again  bow  to  our 
policy  of  commercial  tyranny  over  her.  Rather 
than  precipitate  a  general  war  Serbia  and  her 
natural  protector  and  adviser,  Russia,  had  ac- 
cepted this  unjust  settlement.  Once  more,  as  in 
the  case  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  Austria  and 
her  big  ally,  greatly  to  their  disgust  and  disappoint- 
ment, had  won  their  alleged  object  without  plung- 
ing the  world  into  war.  This  time,  as  before,  their 
plans  had  been  frustrated  by  the  unexpected  and 
undesired  acceptance  by  Serbia  and  Russia  of  their 
unjust  demands.  In  confirmation  of  our  assertions 
about  the  London  Conference  of  Ambassadors  we 
are  now  able  to  quote  no  less  an  authority  than 
Prince  Lichnowsky,  the  German  Ambassador  who 
took  part  in  that  conference.  On  page  11  of  his 
famous  confessions,  he  says: 

**As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  had  again  successfully 
emerged  from  one  of  those  trials  of  strength  which 
characterize  our  policy.  Russia  had  been  obliged 
to  give  way  to  us  on  all  points,  as  she  was  never  in  a 
position  to  procure  success  for  the  Serbian  aims. 
Albania  was  established  as  a  vassal  state  of  Austria 
and  Serbia  was  pressed  back  from  the  sea.     Hence 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  121 

this  conference  resulted  in  a  fresh  liumiliation  for 
Russian  self-esteem.  As  in  1878  and  in  1908,  we 
had  opposed  the  Russian  plans  although  no 
German  interests  were  involved;  but  we  continued  to 
pursue  in  London  the  dangerous  path  upon  which 
we  had  once  entered  in  the  Bosnian  question,  nor  did 
we  leave  it  in  time  when  it  led  to  the  precipice." 

The  Pan-Germans  and  Pan-Magyars  can  stom- 
ach anything  that  succeeds,  but  the  Prochaska 
affair  had  not  succeeded  and  was  therefore  inex- 
cusable. Moreover,  it  had  proved  an  immensely 
expensive  joke.  Through  the  falling  of  stocks 
alone  investors  had  lost  two  billion  kronen.  Aside 
from  the  hundreds  of  millions  which  had  been  un- 
necessarily spent  on  armaments,  the  dynasty  and 
the  diplomacy  of  Austria  had  been  for  a  second  time 
exposed  to  the  contemptuous  derision  of  Europe. 
Consequently  Count  Berchtold  and  his  associates 
fell  under  a  cloud  just  as  had  Aehrenthal  and  his 
fellow  conspirators  four  years  before.  Berchtold 
was  for  a  time  unable  to  muzzle  even  the  most 
venal  and  subservient  newspapers  and  politicians. 
The  old  emperor  was  again  in  a  rage  at  being 
duped,  and  the  courtiers  who  had  neglected  him  to 
pay  liomage  to  the  rising  power  of  Francis  Ferdi- 
nand scuttled  back  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  their  old 
master  and  criticized  as  far  as  they  dared  the  con- 
duct of  the  heir  to  the  throne. 

Even  the  leading  Jewish  paper,  the  great  Neue 
Freie  Presse  of  Vienna,  sullenly  commented:  *'The 


122  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Prochaska  affair  began  as  a  swollen  river  and  has 
now  shrunk  to  a  little  brook  that  one  may  ford  dry- 
shod.  The  question  remains  why  the  monarchy, 
through  a  word  of  explanation  spoken  in  time, 
did  not  quiet  the  situation."  Another  Viennese 
paper,  the  Zeit,  wrote:  "There  are  things  in  the 
Prochaska  affair  for  which  not  Serbia,  but  our 
own  government,  is  responsible  and  should  give 
us  satisfaction." 

A  member  of  the  Hungarian  House  of  Lords 
criticized  Count  Berchtold  for  leaving  the  public 
so  long  in  the  dark  in  the  Prochaska  matter.  As  a 
result  of  these  proddings  an  inspired  statement  ap- 
peared a  few  days  later  which  read  as  follows:  "In 
all  probability  the  Prochaska  affair  will  come  to  a 
peaceful  and  final  solution  in  a  very  short  time. 
The  Austro-Hungarian  Minister  in  Belgrade,  Herr 
Stephan  von  Ugron,  has  communicated  to  Premier 
Pasic  the  desire  of  Austria-Hungary  that  after  the 
return  of  Consuls  Prochaska  and  Von  Tahy  to 
Prisrent  and  Mitrovitza,  the  Austro-Hungarian 
flag  be  given  military  honours  by  a  Serbian  detach- 
ment commanded  by  an  officer.  Serbia  has  agreed 
to  comply  with  this  demand  as  soon  as  Herr  Pro- 
chaska and  Herr  Von  Tahy  return  to  their  posts. 
Also  the  official  Serbian  Press  Bureau  published 
yesterday  an  official  communique  in  which  the 
regret  of  the  Serbian  Government  was  expressed 
over  the  affronts  committed  by  the  Serbian  military 
authorities  against  the  consuls." 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  123 

But  while  Consul  Prochaska  was  no  longer  a 
boon  to  our  diplomacy  but  rather  a  "millstone 
around  our  necks,"  he  appeared  still  capable  of 
being  served  up  once  more  to  whet  the  jaded  ap- 
petites of  the  fire-eating  Pan-Germans  in  Germany. 
Totally  disregarding  the  official  denial  of  our 
Foreign  Office,  German  newspapers,  including  not 
only  Pan-German  organs  like  the  Vossische  Zeitu7ig, 
but  also  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung^  repeated  as  true 
the  familiar  charges  now  officially  branded  as 
falsehoods.  The  latter  paper,  for  good  measure, 
added  some  further  lurid  details  to  the  effect  that 
Serbian  soldiers  had  forced  their  way  into  the  Con- 
sulate, where  they  had  torn  down  and  besmirched 
the  Austrian  flag,  and  finally  had  murdered  with- 
out cause  some  Albanian  families  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  Consulate.  Count  Berchtold  issued  an 
official  denial  of  these  stories  which  finally  ended 
Consul  Prochaska's  vicarious  career  as  an  inter- 
national figure  and  a  possible  cause  of  world  war. 

Both  Prochaska  and  the  runaway.  Consul  Von 
Tahy,  were  brought  back  and  reinstated  in  their 
respective  offices.  Serbian  military  detachments 
both  in  Prisrent  and  Mitrovitza  presented  arms 
in  honour  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  flag,  and  this 
world -stirring  diplomatic  incident  and  "outrage 
against  international  law"  was  closed  except  for 
those  immediately  concerned. 

Just  as  the  Friedjung  charges  had  kept  recurring 
to  plague  Aehrenthal  long  after  their  usefulness 


124  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

had  ceased,  so  now  the  Prochaska  charges  refused 
to  be  buried  by  Berchtold's  solemn  official  denials. 
Professor  Masaryk,  the  distinguished  scientist — at 
this  writing  the  President  of  Czecho-Slovakia 
who,  as  will  be  recalled,  had  been  characterized 
by  one  of  the  judges  in  the  first  high-treason  trial 
at  Zagreb  as  a  "raggamuffin,  a  nobody,  and  a  refuse 
of  human  society" — now  further  displayed  his  rag- 
gamuffinly  traits  by  insisting  upon  washing  the 
dirty  linen  of  the  Prochaska  matter  in  public. 
*' Consul  Prochaska,"  said  Professor  Masaryk, 
"complained  that  the  attitude  of  the  Serbian 
soldiers  toward  the  Catholic  priest  in  Prisrent 
was  indecent,  that  they  forced  their  way  into  the 
Catholic  church  and  into  the  house  of  the  Sisters 
of  Mercy  to  look  there  for  concealed  weapons, 
and  that  they  threatened  him  with  death.  In  this 
complaint  Consul  Prochaska  made  it  clear  that 
the  Catholics  of  Albania  were  under  the  protector- 
ate of  Austria.  The  Consul  demanded  that  the 
officer  who  commanded  the  platoon  of  soldiers  who 
committed  these  acts,  apologize.  To  offset  this 
complaint  we  have  the  deposition  of  the  Catholic 
priest  himself,  stating  that  nothing  had  happened 
to  him,  that  no  one  had  forced  his  way  into  the 
church,  and  that  the  officers  had  merely  come  to 
the  church  and  the  premises  of  the  church  to  see 
whether  they  contained  any  weapons."  "A  sec- 
ond complaint  of  the  Consul  states  that  Serbian 
soldiers  had  taken  from  the  mail  carrier  the  cor- 


AUSTROGERMAN  INTRIGUE  125 

respondence  of  the  Consulate  as  well  as  a  revolver 
which  he  carried  on  his  person.  This  was  con- 
sidered by  Vienna  as  a  particularly  aggravated 
offence."* 

"The  third  complaint  stated  that  Serbian  sol- 
diers had  led  away  a  pony  that  was  grazing  in  a 
pasture  and  which  was  said  by  some  peasants  to 
belong  to  the  Consul."  These  three  complaints 
were,  according  to  Professor  Masaryk,  "the  main 
causes  of  the  Prochaska  affair,  and  led  to  the  offi- 
cial complaints  lodged  by  our  government  in 
Belgrade." 

There  was  a  final  charge  that  the  Serbs  had  made 
hostile  demonstrations  against  the  Consul  when 
he  left  Prisrent.  After  Serbian  diplomatic  agents 
had  investigated  this  charge  it  was  pointed  out  as 
tactfully  as  possible  that  such  hostile  demonstra- 
tions as  may  have  occurred  were  undoubtedly 
directed  not  at  the  Consul, but  at  the  lady  of  doubt- 
ful reputation  who  accompanied  him. 

For  my  part  I  must  admit  that  the  treatment 
accorded  his  lady  companion  must  have  been  gall- 
ing and  humiliating  to  the  hero,  Prochaska!  Some 
Serbs  later  described  to  me  the  circumstances  of 
this  international  event.  It  appears  that  as  the 
consular  cortege  left  Prisrent,  the  Consul  was 
seated  in  one  carriage  and  his  dame  de  compagnie 


*Un<Ioubtodly  llie  Serbian  authorities  bad  prevented  the  Consul  from 
sending  telegrams  in  cipher.  Tiiis  pruhil)ttion  is  common  in  war  time  and 
is  not  regarded  as  a  violation  of  international  law. 


126  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

in  another.  The  ratUing  of  some  tin  cans,  which 
some  street  boys  with  no  sense  of  international 
etiquette,  had  attached  to  her  carriage,  so  alarmed 
the  poor  lady  of  the  demi-monde  that  she  sprang 
from  her  carriage  and  clambered  breathless  and 
protesting  into  that  of  the  accredited  representative 
of  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Government. 

When  Prochaska  returned  to  Vienna  His  Majesty 
soothed  his  outraged  feelings  by  promoting  him 
to  be  a  Consul  General  and  sending  him  in  that 
capacity  to  the  distant  but  beautiful  city  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  where,  like  the  prince  in  the  fairy  story, 
he  lived  happily  until  the  overthrow  of  the  mon- 
archy which  he  had  served  so  picturesquely. 

Probably  Prochaska  did  not  know  himself  who 
had  made  him  famous  until  the  official  organ  of  the 
Ballplatz  published  the  news  the  following  May 
that  "Herr  Koloman  Kania  de  Kanya,  Hofrat 
and  Consul  General,  head  of  the  Literary  Section 
of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  has  been  given 
by  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  the  title  and  character 
of  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotenti- 
ary," adding:  "This  nomination  is  in  recognition 
of  the  services  rendered  by  this  official  in  the  recent 
past.  He  will  retain  his  post  as  head  of  the  Liter- 
ary Section  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs." 
So  this  was  the  man  through  whose  ingenuity  the 
peaceful  entry  of  a  church  to  look  for  concealed 
weapons,  the  search  of  a  Consular  mail  pouch,  and 
the  seizure  of  a  pony,  had   developed  into  an 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  12T 

international  imbroglio  which  threatened  the  peace 
of  the  world.  No  one  can  deny  that  he  was  indeed 
an  "Envoy  Extraordinary"  long  before  his  royal 
master  gave  him  the  title. 

There  were  some  people  in  Austria  who  thought 
that  the  international  opera-bouffe  performances 
of  this  distinguished  individual  did  not  merit 
reward.  Among  these  there  arose  a  storm  of 
indignation.  Two  days  after  the  announcement 
of  the  new  honours  for  the  head  of  the  Literary 
Section,  the  Government  was  faced  by  some  very 
embarrassing  interpellations  in  the  Austrian  Dele- 
gations. Among  other  things  a  demand  was  made 
for  a  judicial  inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  the  official 
whom  His  Majesty  had  just  honoured.  At  this 
point  Premier  Count  Stuergkh  made  an  appeal 
to  the  deputies  that  for  the  honour  of  Austria  and 
the  Hapsburg  Dynasty  they  drop  the  matter  and 
refrain  from  dragging  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
monarchy  through  the  mire  of  a  judicial  investiga- 
tion. This  appeal  was  strangely  reminiscent  of  a 
similar  appeal  which,  four  years  before,  had  been 
made  by  the  representative  of  Francis  Ferdinand 
and  Aehrenthal  to  the  litigants  in  the  Friedjung 
trial.  This  appeal,  like  that  one,  was  successful 
except  that  one  deputy.  Doctor  Kramarz,  re- 
fused to  be  silenced  until  he  had  freed  his  mind. 
He  said:  "An  abominable  crime  was  committed 
against  the  welfare  of  Austria  through  the  Pro- 
chaska  affair,  wheo  it  was  undertaken  artificially 


128  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

to  arouse  war  fever  in  the  populace."  "  I  contend," 
he  said,  "and  if  necessary  I  can  prove  it,  that  the 
Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  knew  all  along  that 
nothing  had  happened  to  Prochaska.  In  the  Liter- 
ary Bureau  originated  all  the  sufferings  which  so 
wrought  upon  us.  There  originated  the  war  fever; 
there  our  terrible  economic  losses  had  their  origin  ; 
thence  came  the  ruin  of  our  economic  life,  those 
who  paid  for  the  crisis  with  their  financial  existence 
have  them  to  thank.  What  did  we  attain  by  the 
Prochaska  affair?  Nothing.  At  least,  nothing 
except  to  become  the  laughing  stock  of  Europe 
and  to  awaken  grave  doubts  as  to  the  conduct 
of  our  foreign  policy  among  all  honest  men  at 
home." 

Had  it  not  been  for  these  revelations  the  world 
would  never  have  had  authentic  knowledge  of  the 
real  inwardness  of  the  Prochaska  affair.  In  the 
official  Red  Book  published  by  our  government  in 
April,  1914,  and  covering  this  memorable  period 
of  our  history,  the  affair  is  not  even  mentioned. 
This  modest  reticence  was  apparently  followed  as 
a  precedent  in  our  later  Red  Book  which  sought 
to  place  upon  Serbia  and  Russia  the  guilt  of  causing 
the  World  War.  In  this  book  one  may  search  in 
vain  for  the  numerous  dispatches  which  passed 
between  Berlin  and  Vienna  in  the  critical  days  pre- 
ceding the  outbreak  of  the  great  war. 

As  for  Prochaska's  impresario,  the  Envoy  Ex- 
traordinary, as  a  sop  to  popular  indignation,  and 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  129 

with  one  of  its  consummate  strokes  of  unconscious 
humour,  our  Foreign  Office  sent  him  as  Minister 
to  Mexico  where  later  he  perhaps  found  famihar 
and  congenial  occupation  in  helping  Foreign  Secre- 
tary Kuhlmann  of  Germany  partition  the  United 
States — on  paper. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Berchtold's  Albanian  Comedy 

PRINCE    HOHENLOHE's    MISSION    TO    THE    CZAR 

j4  FTER  the  exposure  of  the  Consul  Prochaska 
/\  fraud  and  Europe's  narrow  escape  from 
jL  M.  war  in  December,  1912,  through  the  efforts 
of  the  London  Conference  of  Ambassadors  and  the 
acceptance  by  Serbia  and  Russia  of  the  unjust 
demands  of  Austria  and  Germany,  there  came  a 
great  reaction  among  the  peoples  of  Austria- 
Hungary.  The  war  spirit  rapidly  subsided  and 
the  artificially  created  patriotic  enthusiasm  evapo- 
rated overnight.  Noisy  patriots  no  longer  marched 
to  the  Deutschmeister  Monument  to  bellow  the 
Prince  Eugene  song.  In  the  cabarets  and  all- 
night  resorts  the  guests  were  no  longer  stirred  by 
the  singing  of  the  national  hymn.  The  lust  for 
war  and  conquest  was  gone.  After  its  jingo  de- 
bauch the  whole  nation  seemed  to  be  suffering  from 
a  "morning-after  "headache  and  depression.  The 
people  felt  bitter  and  resentful  toward  the  Govern- 
ment for  having  "led  them  by  the  nose."  The 
Balkan  experts  with  their  "inside  sources  of  infor- 
mation" and  the  staff  trumpeters  of  the  Ballplatz 

130 


AUSTROGERMAN  INTRIGUE  131 

press  became  mute.  The  people  saw  with  anger 
that  every  foot  of  territory  which  had  been  snatched 
from  the  Serbs  and  given  to  Albania  was,  so  to 
speak,  covered  with  Austrian  gold — ^Albania  whose 
longevity  as  a  nation  everyone  questioned.  This 
depression  was  nowhere  greater  than  in  the  ranks 
of  the  "Black- Yellow  Party"  itself.  All  of  them 
from  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  down  to  the 
least  of  the  Ballplatz  "press  reptiles"  (the  con- 
temptuous term  by  which  the  nobles  in  the  Foreign 
Service  always  refer  to  the  Jewish  reporters)  were 
plunged  in  gloom.  But  the  War  Party,  although 
disgusted,  was  by  no  means  discouraged.  It  began 
at  once  to  formulate  new  plans  to  accomplish  its 
purpose. 

The  new  programme  appeared  in  the  January, 
1913,  number  of  Baron  Chlumetzky's  magazine,  the 
Oesterr.  Rundschau,  under  the  title  "Evil  Forebod- 
ings," and  read:  "We  have  not  spent  uncounted 
millions  and  brought  upon  our  empire  many  a 
heavy  crisis  to  create  an  Albania  that  should  fall 
chiefly  under  the  influence  of  other  powers.  Even 
less  can  we  permit  this  Albania  to  have  a  miscarriage 
which  would  soon  demand  of  us  new  and  costly 
cures.  Austria-Hungary  has  assumed,  in  opposition 
to  Serbia,  the  responsibility  of  the  fatherhood  of  the 
new  Albania.  We  have  already  paid  for  the  de- 
livery of  Albania  high  birth  tolls.  We  must  not 
now  be  satisfied  with  half-way  measures.  We 
must,  on  the  contrary,  summon  the  will  power  to 


132  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

bring  about  in  the  Balkans  a  new  order  of  things 
in  the  way  best  suited  to  our  interests — the  creation 
of  the  form  of  Albanian  autonomy  most  favourable 
to  our  requirements,  with  territorial  boundaries 
such  as  will  guarantee  to  the  new  state  the  pos- 
sibility of  untrammelled  growth — the  securing 
from  Serbia  of  guarantees,  to  be  given  at  once  be- 
fore the  final  settlement  of  the  Balkan  question, 
of  trade  rights  in  Macedonia  and  Albania  and  fi- 
nally a  free  passage  to  Salonica.  These  are  in  gen- 
eral the  problems  which  must  be  solved  before  we 
can  look  into  the  future  with  anything  like  con- 
fidence. To  back  down  on  any  one  of  these  points 
would  be  to  invite  grave  misfortune  for  the  mon- 
archy. The  world  would  interpret  it  as  a  symptom 
of  weakness — as  a  confession  that  we  had  indeed 
lost  that  power  to  act  and  that  vitality  which  is 
essential  to  a  great  power,  as  indeed  to  any  state 
if  it  shall  not  gradually  fall  into  decay."  In  an  ar- 
ticle supplementing  this,  entitled:  "Austria- 
Hungary's  Interest  in  a  Strong  Albania,"  which 
appeared  in  the  next  number  of  the  same  publica- 
tion, this  statement  was  made:  "The  military 
importance  of  a  Greater  Serbia  in  relation  to  the 
radius  of  action  of  the  monarchy  consists  in  this, 
that  such  a  Serbia  would  be  able  to  put  into  the 
field  half  a  million  men  and  would  thus  neutralize 
in  each  international  complication  an  equally 
large  Austro-Hungarian  force,  and  would  thus 
withdraw  it  from  the  main  theatre  of  war.     [That 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  133 

is,  from  the  Russian  theatre  of  war.]  This  would 
also  affect  the  military  value  of  the  monarchy  in 
the  German-Austrian  Alliance.  Only  a  strong 
Albania  can  serve  as  a  counterweight  to  this. 
But  for  the  Austro-IIungarian  and  the  German 
policy  this  must  serve  as  the  last  bulwark  against 
the  advance  of  Pan-Slavism  to  the  iVdriatic. 
Finally,  Albania  is  the  last  bridge  over  which 
Middle  Europe  can  unopposed  extend  its  hegemony 
into  the  Western  Balkans."  We  shall  see  that  all 
the  subsequent  efforts  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
and  German  governments  up  to  August  9,  1913, 
when  Italy  wet-blanketed  their  plans  by  refusing 
to  join  them  in  an  attack  upon  Serbia  and  in  a 
world  war,  were  strictly  in  accord  with  the  aims  set 
forth  in  these  quasi-official  statements. 

It  should  be  noted  that  these  statements  are 
based  on  purely  military  and  strategic  consider- 
ations. The  former  military  assumption  that 
Turkey  could  be  counted  upon  at  least  to  hold  in 
check  the  Balkan  States  while  Austria  and  Ger- 
many attacked  Russia  had  been  upset  by  the  al- 
liance between  Serbia  and  Bulgaria  and  destroyed 
by  the  victory  of  the  Balkan  Alliance  over  Turkey. 
The  Alliance  could  put  a  million  soldiers  in  the 
field  to  checkmate  Austria-Hungary  should  the 
long-cherished  scheme  for  the  conquest  and  parti- 
tion of  Russia  be  attempted.  The  Balkan  Alli- 
ance or,  as  it  was  well  termed,  the  Tenth  World 
Power,  was  in  its  ethnic  composition  predominately 


134  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Slav.  Serbs  and  Bulgars  outnumbered  the  Greeks 
three  to  one,  while  all  three  peoples  were  adherents 
of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  and,  as  such,  natur- 
ally looked  to  Russia  as  the  leading  Greek  Orthodox 
Slav  power.  As  a  result  of  the  shabby  treatment 
we  had  always  given  Serbia,  as  well  as  our  consis- 
tent oppression  of  our  own  southern  Slavs,  we  well 
knew  that  we  could  expect  nothing  of  this  new 
world  power.  We  therefore  decided  that  it  must 
be  crushed.  To  crush  the  Balkan  Alliance  we 
believed  it  was  only  necessary  to  crush  Serbia  and 
give  her  allies,  Bulgaria  and  Greece,  a  share  in  the 
spoils.  While,  on  the  one  hand,  we  continued 
our  elaborate  preparations  to  crush  Serbia  by 
force,  we,  on  the  other  hand,  started,  through  the 
underground  channels  of  secret  diplomacy,  to 
detach  Bulgaria  from  the  alliance  with  her.  Count 
Adam  Tarnowski,  our  Minister  in  Sofia,  the  same 
man  who  in  the  World  War  actually  brought 
Bulgaria  on  to  the  side  of  the  Central  Empires, 
was  entrusted  with  this  diplomatic  task.  His 
efforts  were  greatly  facilitated  by  the  pro-Austrian 
sympathies  of  King  Ferdinand.  The  secret  ambi- 
tion of  King  Ferdinand  for  a  Bulgarian  domination 
of  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  to  make  Bulgaria  the 
Prussia  of  the  Balkan  States,  coupled  with  the  de- 
termination of  Serbia,  now  that  she  had  been 
denied  her  "little  window  on  the  Adriatic,"  to  hold 
her  economic  outlet  on  the  JEge&n  through  Mace- 
donia, played  admirably  into  the  hands  of  our 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  13o 

diplomacy.  Serbia  held  that  the  harbour  on  the 
Adriatic  which  she  had  won  with  blood  and  treasure 
could  never  have  been  wrested  from  her  at  the 
behest  of  Austria  had  Bulgaria  been  true  to  the 
Alliance  and  honestly  supported  Serbia's  claims. 
Since  Bulgaria  had  not  helped  her  to  keep  her 
hold  on  the  Adriatic  she  declined  to  turn  over  to 
Bulgaria,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  Al- 
liance, the  portions  of  Macedonia  which  Serbia's 
armies  had  conquered  and  thus  lose  her  outlet  on 
the  iEgean  as  well  as  the  Adriatic  and  place  her- 
self again  in  the  position  of  economic  dependence 
which  she  had  fought  a  victorious  war  to  escape. 
In  order  to  crush  Serbia  and  rescue  Turkey,  and 
to  forestall  the  interference  of  Russia,  we  decided 
to  try  to  cajole  Russia  into  demobilizing  on  our 
northern  front.  It  will  be  recalled  that  at  the  out- 
break of  the  First  Balkan  War  we  had  begun  to 
mobilize  our  armies.  We  had  gradually  concen- 
trated 400,000  men  on  the  Serbian  frontier  who 
were  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  invade  Serbia. 
We  had  also  mobilized  against  Russia  on  our 
northern  frontier.  Russia's  only  answer  to  this 
unusual  provocation  had  been  to  retain  one  class 
of  the  year  1910  with  the  colours  instead  of  sending 
the  men  to  their  homes.  But  even  these  men  she 
held  in  the  interior  and  not  near  our  border.  We 
sought,  by  playing  upon  the  well-known  pacific 
ideals  of  the  Czar  and  by  cultivating  in  Russia  a 
false  sense  of  security,  to  have  these  reservists  sent 


136  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

home.  With  Russia  fully  demobilized  our  Gen- 
eral Staff  had  calculated  that  we  could  crush  Serbia 
before  Russia  could  come  to  her  assistance. 

Accordingly  the  three  objectives  of  our  diplo- 
macy at  this  time  were:  to  rekindle  the  war  spirit 
in  Turkey,  to  detach  Bulgaria  from  her  allies  and 
thus  break  up  the  Balkan  Alliance,  and,  by  playing 
upon  the  Czar's  pacific  ideals,  to  secure  the  de- 
mobilization of  Russia's  army  and  thus  obtain  a 
clear  field  for  the  crushing  of  Serbia.  Adrianople, 
the  second  Holy  City  of  the  Ottomans,  had  been 
conquered  by  the  Balkan  Allies.  We  told  the 
Turks  that  upon  their  recapture  of  the  * 'fortress 
of  Adrianople  hung  the  peace  of  the  world."  And 
secretly  we  informed  the  leaders  of  the  Young 
Turk  Party  that  if  they,  through  a  coup  d'etat^ 
would  overthrow  the  existing  government  and 
set  up  one  of  their  own  we  would  lend  military  aid. 

To  work  upon  the  peace  sentiments  of  the  Czar, 
Count  Berchtold  sent  Prince  Gottfried  Hohenlohe, 
a  son-in-law  of  the  Archdul^e  Frederick,  to  Petro- 
grad  with  a  personal  letter  from  the  old  emperor 
proposing  to  his  fellow  monarch  that  he  demobil- 
ize on  Austria's  northern  frontier  provided  Austria 
should  do  the  same.  All  mention  of  Austria's 
heavily  mobilized  southern  frontier  was  studiously 
avoided.  The  alleged  peace  mission  of  Prince 
Hohenlohe  was  widely  heralded  in  the  Ballplatz 
press.  Papers  like  the  Neue  Freie  Presse  waxed 
eloquent  on  the  well-known  peace  sentiments  of 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  137 

Czar  Nicholas  and  reminded  him  of  his  obligation 
to  be  faithful  to  the  ideals  of  the  great  movement 
for  international  peace  and  disarmament  which  he 
had  set  on  foot  through  the  first  Hague  Peace 
Conference  fifteen  years  before.  They  further 
pointed  out  to  the  Czar  that  the  causes  which  had 
four  times  during  the  reign  of  Francis  Joseph 
brought  Russia  and  Austria  to  the  verge  of  war 
had  now  been  removed  by  the  complete  victory 
of  the  Balkan  States  over  Turkey.  They  said 
that  no  matter  who  won  in  the  war  in  the  Balkans, 
which  threatened  to  break  out  anew,  henceforth 
the  Balkans  would  belong  to  the  Balkanians. 

Thus  having  stimulated  the  war  spirit  in  Turkey 
and  the  peace  spirit  in  Russia  we  turned  our  at- 
tention to  the  task  of  recreating  war  enthusiasm 
among  our  own  sorely  tried  people.  It  seemed 
desirable  that  our  new  proteges,  the  Albanians, 
should  manifest  their  national  consciousness  and 
aspirations  in  some  dramatic  way  and  that  they 
should  appeal  to  us  to  help  them.  An  Albanian 
congress  with  representatives  from  all  over  the 
world  as  well  as  from  Albania  was  just  what  was 
needed.  An  Albanian  congress  organizing  com- 
mittee was  accordingly  quickly  set  to  work  and  the 
Congress  was  announced  to  open  on  March  1,  1913. 

On  January  24,  1913,  the  first  act  in  our  new  war 
drama  occurred  just  as  it  had  been  rehearsed. 
The  Young  Turks  sprang  their  cowp  d'etat  under  the 
leadership  of  Enver  Bey,  the  young  Jewish  Turk 


188  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

who  had  been  the  hero  of  the  Turco-ItaHan  War 
and  of  the  Revolution.  A  Young  Turk  govern- 
ment was  set  up  which  announced  as  one  of  its 
cardinal  principles  the  necessity  for  the  recapture 
of  the  Holy  City  of  Adrianople. 

With  a  Holy  Mohammedan  war  thus  satisfactor- 
ily launched  by  our  Turkish  friends  we  were  free 
to  turn  to  the  cultivation  of  the  budding  aspira- 
tions of  our  Albanian  proteges.  The  organizing 
committee  of  the  Albanian  Congress  originally 
planned  to  hold  their  meetings  in  the  Festive  Hall 
of  the  patriotic  society  known  as  "Austria,"  but 
they  finally  decided  to  hold  it  in  Tina  di  Lorenzo 
Hall  of  Dreher's  Brewery  in  Trieste  in  order  to 
guard  against  arousing  the  suspicions  of  unsym- 
pathic  observers  that  there  was  collusion  between 
the  congress  and  our  government.  On  the  ap- 
pointed day  Dreher's  Brewery  became  the  cradle 
of  the  new  Albanian  nation.  No  less  than  500 
Albanian  patriots  had  come  as  delegates  not  only 
from  their  Fatherland,  but  from  Rumania,  Dal- 
matia,  Greece,  Spain,  Italy,  and  even  from  far-off 
America. 

At  the  opening  session  the  president  of  the 
organizing  committee  introduced  with  appro- 
priate eulogistic  remarks  the  representative  of 
the  Imperial  and  Royal  Government  of  Austria- 
Hungary.  This  dignitary  was  none  other  than 
Police  Director  Mahovec,  who  had  rendered  dis- 
tinguished service  in  the  arrest  of  Pan-Serb  con- 


AUSTRO-GERIVIAN  INTRIGUE  139 

spirators  during  the  high-treason  trials  described 
in  a  previous  chapter.  The  poHce  director  closed 
his  address  with  the  words  that  he  hoped  in  the 
near  future  to  see  Albania  "a  free  and  independent 
state"  and  took  his  seat  amid  a  storm  of  applause. 
On  the  second  day  the  congress  was  addressed  by 
Count  Heinrich  Taaffe,  a  member  of  one  of  the 
greatest  noble  families  of  Austria.  The  noble 
count  expressed  his  desire  to  see  the  "birth  of  a 
Greater  Albania."  "Austria-Hungary,"  he  said, 
"will  help  the  new  state  in  every  possible  way." 
He  concluded  with  the  exclamation:  "Long  live 
Greater  Albania!"  whereupon  the  500  delegates 
rose  as  one  man  and  shouted:  "Long  live  Austria! 
Long  live  the  Triple  Alliance!" 

A  teacher  delegate  exhorted  his  hearers  to  go  to 
Albania  and  "with  the  sword  of  Scanderbeg  put 
to  flight  the  band  of  brigands  who  want  to  destroy 
the  Fatherland."  The  delegates  were  greatly  ex- 
cited to  discover  in  their  midst  a  Prince  Scanderbeg 
who  claimed  descent  from  the  national  hero  whose 
sword  they  were  thus  exhorted  to  use.  A  letter 
was  read  from  an  absent  patriot  in  Kroja,  Albania, 
which  said:  "Ten  thousand  armed  Albanians  are 
assembled  in  the  vicinity  of  Allessio,  and  fighting 
has  already  begun."  On  the  third  day  a  letter 
from  Count  Berchtold  was  read  in  which  he  ex- 
pressed his  best  wishes  for  the  welfare  of  Albania 
and  the  "Albanian  Nation."  This  letter  seemed 
to  inspire  one  of  the  delegates  to  spring  to  his  feet 


140  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

and  make  the  modest  proposal  that  Greater  Al- 
bania should  include  the  whole  of  Old  Serbia  as  well 
as  Macedonia.  He  also  proposed  that "  in  the  name 
of  the  Albanian  Congress  a  general  revolt  be  pro- 
claimed in  Albania  for  the  defence  of  the  Father- 
land." *'The  Albanian,"  he  continued,  "never 
forgets  his  vendetta  and  let  whomsoever  agrees 
with  me,"  exclaimed  the  orator  in  thunderous  tones, 
"raise  his  hand  and  solemnly  swear  the  hessa" 
[the  Albanian  oath].  All  the  five  hundred  sprang 
from  their  seats  and  raised  their  hands,  exclaiming: 
"We  swear — on  with  the  struggle  for  liberty!" 
After  this  one  of  the  delegates  shouted  amid  ap- 
plause: *'We  shall  make  of  Kossovo*  [Old  Serbia] 
a  Serbian  cemetery." 

Then  a  Catholic  priest,  in  the  midst  of  a  storm 
of  applause,  thanked  their  great  benefactors  the 
King  of  Italy  and  His  Apostolic  Majesty  the  Em- 
peror of  Austria-Hungary  and  their  respective 
Foreign  Ministers  for  their  august  support  of  the 
Congress.  A  delegate  from  Bucharest  assured 
the  assembly  that  "Rumania  is  watching  with 
sincere  sympathy  the  resurrection  of  Albania." 
A  delegate  from  Boston  addressed  the  gathering 
as  follows:  "Italy  and  Austria  will  do  everything 
possible  to  give  us  a  Greater  Albania,  but  this  will 
not  suffice  We  also  must  do  our  duty.  We  are 
the  ones  who  must  make  war ! "     And  with  the  cry: 


*The  famous  battle  in  which  the  Serbs  were  defeated  by  the  Turks  in 
1S89. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  141 

"To  arms!  to  arms!"  the  orator  concluded  his 
speech  amid  thunderous  applause.  Another  dele- 
gate quoted  statistics  showing  that  there  were,  all 
told,  1,800,000  Albanians.  Another  priest  then 
took  the  floor  to  advocate  the  "creation  of  a  buffer 
state  made  up  of  the  Kutzo-Wallachs,"  a  race  of 
shepherds  scattered  over  the  Macedonian  moun- 
tains. This  state  should  form  a  "buffer  state  be- 
tween Greece,  Bulgaria,  Serbia,  and  Albania;  being, 
however,  under  the  protection  of  Greater  Albania." 
The  crowning  moment  of  the  congress  arrived 
when  Lieutenant  Haessler  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
army  pointed  out  on  a  map  "how  the  Albanian 
frontiers  must  be  drawn,"  exhorting  the  congress 
"loudly  to  raise  its  voice  for  all  four  vilayets 
[provinces],  that  is,  for  the  Greater  Albania,  as 
already  proposed  by  delegate  Cacarigi."  In  con- 
cluding, the  president  said  that  Albania  now 
needed  only  three  things:  "A  flag,  a  gun,  and  cart- 
ridges." Thereupon — with  shouts  of,  "Long  live 
His  Majesty  Emperor  Francis  Joseph!  Long 
live  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand!  Long 
live  the  Hapsburg  monarchy!" — the  congress 
adjourned. 

Through  this  same  Lieutenant  Haessler  in  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1914  we  liberally  provided 
the  Albanians  with  these  three  things  which  they 
lacked  according  to  the  president  of  their  congress, 
as  will  be  disclosed  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

In  describing  this  birth  of  a  nation  the  daily 


142  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

papers  of  Trieste  mentioned  that  the  congress  had 
received  from  the  Austro-Hungarian  Government 
a  subvention  of  50,000  kronen.  This  report  was 
never  denied  by  Count  Berchtold  who  might  per- 
haps be  described  as  the  eflScient,  though  absent, 
midwife  of  the  occasion.  The  president  of  the 
congress,  however,  indignantly  denied  that  any 
motives  save  self-sacrificing  patriotism  had  led 
his  lusty  mountaineer  compatriots  to  travel  from 
all  corners  of  the  globe  to  the  now  immortalized 
hall  of  Dreher's  Brewery.  He  published  a  state- 
ment showing  that  the  entire  expenses  of  the  con- 
gress had  amounted  to  only  1,132  kronen  and  78 
hellers  (about  $200.00).  Even  this  modest  sum, 
he  claimed,  was  contributed  in  greater  part  by 
two  aspirants  to  the  throne  of  Albania  and  not  by 
the  government  of  Austria-Hungary. 

Meantime  the  Czar  and  his  government  were 
struggling  to  meet  the  peace  overtures  of  Francis 
Joseph  without  endangering  the  safety  of  their 
great  country.  They  were  perhaps  excusable  if 
they  did  not  regard  the  events  in  Turkey  or 
Albania  as  quite  consistent  with  the  pacific  pro- 
testations of  our  emperor.  There  was  another 
disturbing  factor  with  which  they  must  reckon. 
Persistent  reports  were  circulated  that  two  groups 
of  men  were  struggling  for  the  rudder  of  the  Aus- 
trian ship  of  state,  one  group  under  the  nominal 
leadership  of  the  aged  emperor  and  the  other  led 
by  the  ambitious  and  energetic  heir  to  the  throne. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  143 

There  were  times  when  the  highest  officials  did  not 
know  whose  orders  to  obey.  They  were  trying 
to  serve  two  masters.  As  this  situation  became 
known  in  a  general  way  to  the  man  on  the  street 
it  naturally  did  not  escape  the  attention  of  Russia's 
diplomats.  The  extreme  old  age  and  weakness, 
both  physical  and  mental,  of  the  Emperor,  on  the 
one  hand;  the  aggressiveness  of  the  heir  to  the 
throne,  on  the  other;  the  daily  expected  death  of 
the  one,  to  be  followed  by  the  ascension  to  the 
throne  by  the  other,  made  our  courtiers  and  poli- 
ticians sway  like  willows  in  a  wind.  When  the  old 
man  fell  into  a  state  of  torpor  they  swayed  to  the 
side  of  the  heir.  When  he  rallied  and  had  a  period 
of  senile  energy  they  swayed  back  to  bow  again 
their  servile  backs  before  their  choleric  old  master. 
This  dual  control  resulted  in  the  greatest  confusion 
in  the  upper  councils  of  the  Government.  This 
pulling  and  hauling  for  the  rudder  of  the  ship  of 
state  created  apprehension  at  home  and  distrust 
abroad. 

The  mission  of  Prince  Hohenlohe  to  the  Czar 
gave  our  old  friend  Kania  de  Kanj'a,  the  chief  of 
the  press  bureau,  a  providential  opportunity  to 
alarm  our  people  as  to  Russia's  dark  designs  upon 
them.  Each  day  the  Ballplatz  press  pictured  as 
more  and  more  hopeless  the  efforts  of  Prince 
Hohenlohe  to  dissuade  Russia  from  her  warlike 
designs  upon  us.  The  war  dread  of  our  people 
was  by  no  means  lessened  when  on   the  4th  of 


144  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

March,  1913,  they  learned  that  Chancellor 
Bethmann-Hollweg  of  Germany  was  about  to 
call  upon  the  Reichstag  to  raise  the  peace  footing 
of  the  German  army  to  the  enormous  figure  of 
more  than  870,000  men  and  to  levy  a  special  mili- 
tary tax  of  more  than  a  billion  marks  upon  the 
people  of  the  nation.  It  was  further  understood 
that  the  Chancellor  was  taking  this  action  at  the 
behest  of  his  royal  master.  Coming  at  a  time  of 
special  tension  over  Albania  and  the  Balkan  situa- 
tion in  general  it  could  only  be  assumed  that 
Germany's  immense  increase  in  armaments  was 
immediately  related  to  those  situations.  This 
assumption  was  confirmed  by  the  German  press. 
Germania,  the  medium  of  the  German  Centre 
Party,  which  had  become  one  of  the  strong  pro-war 
groups,  said  in  explanation  of  these  increased  arm- 
aments: "The  assumption  heretofore  existing  that, 
in  a  European  war,  the  Balkan  States  could  be  held 
in  check  by  Turkej''  has  become  untenable  in  view 
of  the  present  state  of  affairs.  To-day  Austria 
finds  herself  in  case  of  war  face  to  face  with  two 
fronts." 

Early  in  January  the  Czar  had  declared  that  he 
would  not  allow  himself  to  be  dragged  into  war. 
The  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  coming 
of  the  Romanoffs  to  the  throne  of  Russia  was  to 
be  celebrated  on  March  6,  1913.  The  Czar  was 
particularly  anxious  that  his  efforts  in  behalf  of 
international  peace  should  be  emphasized  on  this 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRICJUE  115 

occasion.  He  desired  that  the  world-wide  public- 
ity which  the  occasion  would  naturally  call  forth 
should  be  used  to  promote  the  idea  of  world  peace. 
He  was  therefore  particularly  desirous,  at  this  time 
of  all  others,  to  demonstrate  Russia's  pacific  at- 
titude toward  her  neighbours. 

Accordingly  on  March  eleventh  Czar  Nicholas 
accepted  the  unfair  proposal  of  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph  and  agreed  to  disperse  the  men  of  the  class 
of  1910  while  Austria-Hungary  was  to  reduce  to 
peace  strength  her  forces  on  the  Galician  frontier. 
The  Petrograd  Telegraph  Agency  in  announcing 
this  demobilization  added:  *'As  appears  from  the 
discussions  carried  on  with  the  cabinet  of  Vienna, 
the  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy  harbours  no  ag- 
gressive intention  toward  its  southern  neighbours." 
This  was  a  clever  bit  of  Russian  diplomacy  which 
put  the  Ballplatz  in  a  very  uncomfortable  position. 
When  in  the  course  of  the  negotiations  on  demobili- 
zation the  Russians  had  pointed  out  the  unreason- 
ableness of  our  demand  that  they  demobilize  while 
we  refused  to  demobilize  against  Serbia  on  our 
southern  frontier,  the  least  our  side  could  say  in  re- 
joinder was  that  this  mobilization  indicated  no 
aggressive  intentions  toward  our  southern  neigh- 
bours. In  other  words,  the  obvious  lie  which 
our  diplomats  had  told  in  the  decent  obscurity 
of  secret  diplomacy  was  now  trumpeted  abroad 
to  all  the  world.  "The  Czar  of  Russia  has  ex- 
tended his  hand  to  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  in 


146  AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE 

order  that  the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
reign  of  the  House  of  Romanoff  may  be  an  un- 
forgettable moment  for  the  whole  world — that 
of  the  triumph  of  peace,  whose  enthusiastic  adher- 
ent the  present  emperor,  Czar  Nicholas,  ever  has 
been,  as  was  also  his  august  father."  Such  was  the 
comment  on  this  memorable  event  in  Petrograd 
and  Paris. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Bethmann-Hollweg  Predicts  War  Between 
"Germandom  and  Slavdom,"  April,  1913 

Austria's  ultimatum  to  montenegro 

WHEN  Kaiser  Wilhelm  learned  of  the  Czar's 
decision  to  accept  the  proposal  of  Francis 
Joseph  to  reduce  the  strength  of  the  Rus- 
sian army  on  the  Galician  frontier,  in  an  exuberant 
order  of  the  day  to  his  own  army,  he  exclaimed: 
*'Gott  mit  uns  /"  The  day  after  the  announcement 
that  Russia  had  accepted  our  proposal  Count 
Berchtold  stated  in  the  Austrian  Delegations :  '*  We 
have  vital  interests  in  the  Balkans  for  the  protec- 
tion of  which  we  must  under  all  circumstances  in- 
tervene." It  will  be  noted  that  this  is  practically 
the  same  statement  which  Berchtold  made  in  the 
critical  days  of  December,  1912,  when  our  armies 
were  daily  expecting  the  order  to  march  against 
Serbia.  At  the  same  time  General  Conrad  von 
Hoetzendorf,  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff,  that 
tireless  advocate  of  "war  at  any  price,"  came  out 
with  this  characteristic  statement:  "Our  monarchy 
is  too  patient,  she  is  treating  Serbia  and  Monto- 
negro  with  too  great  leniency.     She  must  show  her 

147 


148  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

fighting  will  to  counteract  the  evil  designs  of  her 
neighbours  and  she  must  at  any  cost  retain  her 
influence  in  the  Balkans.  By  war  we  must,  ac- 
cording to  the  military  idea,  augment  the  prestige 
of  the  monarchy  and  win  for  it  more  respect." 
Now  that  Russia  had  committed  herself  to  a  peace- 
ful policy  our  war  advocates  threw  off  all  restraint. 
They  demanded  with  ever-increasing  boldness  im- 
mediate war — war  for  the  "redistribution  of  the 
earth."  This  had  become  their  modest  slogan. 
One  of  the  Court  councillors  elucidated  this  new 
slogan  in  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  January- 
March,  1913,  issue  of  Oesterr.  Rundschau.  In  this  he 
makes  the  statement:  "We  are  trying  in  these 
historical  times  to  act  as  history  requires.  The 
great  wide  world  is  knocking  at  our  door.  We 
must  rush  out  and  make  world  history.  As  the 
possible  fruit  of  such  action  there  lies  before  us  the 
whole  Oriental  world — Turkey,  Persia,  and  China — 
which  are  doomed  to  destruction,  and  we  might 
have  also  Morocco  and  Tunis,  and  possibly  even 
Egypt.  Parts  of  Asia  and  Africa  as  well  as  Europe 
are  the  great  goals  which  to-day  command  the 
attention  of  Europe." 

The  hated  London  Conference  of  Ambassadors 
was  a  constant  stumbling  block  to  our  war  propagan- 
dists. No  sooner  did  we  think  up  some  demand 
which  seemed  sufficiently  preposterous  to  provoke 
war  than  the  tireless  ambassadors  would  secure  its 
peaceful  acceptance  by  the  Balkan  States  and  Russia. 


AUSTRO-GER^IAN  INTRIGUE  149 

In  the  meantime,  we  had  to  content  ourselves 
with  the  piHng  up  of  armaments.  This  process 
went  forward  as  briskly  as  in  the  most  palmy  days 
of  the  Prochaska  affair.  We  turned  our  special 
attention  to  the  building  up  of  a  great  air  fleet 
and  to  the  development  of  a  great  new  gun  factory 
in  Hungary.  The  proclamation  authorizing  this 
gun  factory  was  signed  by  Archduke  Karl  Franz 
Joseph,  the  last  Hapsburg  Emperor,  in  his  then 
capacity  as  a  major  in  the  Ordnance  Department. 
This  was  a  branch  factory  of  the  famous  Skoda 
Works.  The  great  Hungarian  Jewish  munition 
manufacturers,  Manfred  Weiss  and  Deutch  &  Son 
of  Budapest,  were  financially  interested  in  it  as  in 
the  parent  factory.  The  Krupps  of  Germany 
and  the  Hungarian  Government  were  also  finan- 
cially involved  in  the  enterprise. 

This  rampant  militarism  was,  if  possible,  even 
more  flagrant  in  Germany.  There  all  the  anti- 
military  Sauls  seemed  to  have  been  converted  by 
the  apostles  of  militarism  into  militaristic  spend- 
thrift Pauls,  to  whom  henceforth  no  demands  for 
armaments  on  land  or  sea  could  be  too  great. 
Even  the  Socialists  joined  in  this  orgy  of  militarism. 
Russia's  legitimate  aspiration  for  a  free  passage 
through  the  Dardanelles  and  Serbia's  equally 
legitimate  desire  for  a  commercial  corridor  to  the 
Adriatic  were  given  as  reasons  for  this  reckless 
prodigality  in  military  expenditure.  The  Balkan 
Alliance  was    referred    to    as  "overbalancing  the 


150  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

scales  in  favour  of  Slavdom."  And  all  Germany 
constantly  reiterated  that  "Germanic  Austria" 
must  serve  as  the  advance  guard  in  stemming  the 
advance  of  the  Slavs. 

When  the  Ballplatz  learned  that  six  thousand 
Serbs  were  marching  over  the  mountains  to  the  aid 
of  their  Montenegrin  brothers  who  were  closing 
in  on  Skutari  the  Old  Gray  House  (the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Foreign  Office)  became  almost  a  mad- 
house. The  "press  reptiles'*  were  let  loose  and  be- 
gan to  shriek  in  the  war  press:  "The  future  World 
War  has  again  received  a  new  name,  and  that  name 
is  Skutari . "  ' 'Europe, ' '  wrote  the  Neue  Freie  Presse^ 
"which  is  rolling  up  billions  and  bringing  up  the 
peace  strength  of  its  armies  to  a  height  never  be- 
fore dreamed  of,  resembles  one  of  those  electric 
travelling  cranes  with  a  capacity  for  carrying  im- 
mense loads  but  which  if  a  pebble  is  caught  in  its 
mechanism  is  easily  put  out  of  order.  The  pebble 
is  Skutari,  and  Europe  the  Titan  who  could  crush 
the  whole  Balkans  between  its  thumb  and  fore- 
finger without  being  aware  of  any  exertion,  endures 
the  malicious  teasing  of  the  march  of  new  Serbian 
battalions  against  the  encircled  fortress  without 
defending  itself  against  the  worry.  Will  Skutari 
fall  and  will  its  fall  develop  new  complications 
threatening  the  peace  of  Europe.?"  But  as  the 
march  of  the  Serbs  was  completely  in  conformity 
with  the  rules  of  warfare,  Skutari  being  a  Turkish 
fortress  defended  by  Turkish  troops,  and  as  we 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  151 

could  not  go  to  the  rescue  of  the  Turks  without  ex- 
posing ourselves  to  the  obloquy  of  intervening  for 
the  decaying  Mohammedan  power  and  against  the 
liberation  of  Christian  people,  we  had  to  have  some 
more  presentable  cause  for  entering  the  war.  Since 
this  time  our  General  Staff  for  strategical  reasons 
desired  to  invade  Montenegro  w^e  needed  a  casus 
belli  against  that  valiant  little  country,  the  "eagle's 
nest"  of  the  Jugoslavs. 

Accordingly,  Count  Berchtold  ordered  the  "Lit- 
erary" Bureau  to  discover  at  once  what  Monte- 
negro had  done  to  violate  international  law  or  to 
flaunt  the  sensitive  honour  of  the  Dual  Monarchy. 
He  had  only  a  few  days  to  wait.  On  the  21st 
of  March  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  were 
"shaken  by  the  terrible  news"  that  a  Franciscan 
monk.  Father  Angelus  Palitch,  had  been  foully 
murdered  by  Montenegrins!  The  war  press 
shrieked  for  vengeance  for  this  "incredible  crime" 
— "this  crime  that  was  crying  to  Heaven  for 
vengeance!"  "A  reliable  report,"  said  the  Neue 
Freie  Presse  in  its  issue  of  March  21st,  "giving  the 
details  of  this  crime,  discloses  that  it  was  committed 
with  bestial  ferocity  and  barbarity  and  in  a  hor- 
rifyingly bloody  manner.  The  adventures  of  the 
Franciscan  Father  Palitch  are  politically  of  great 
importance.  We  must  protect  the  peasants  of 
Djakova  who  are  robbed  of  their  most  essential 
rights.  We  must  insist  upon  the  investigation  of 
the   base   crime   against   the   Franciscan   Father 


152  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Palitch  not  only  because  since  olden  times  has  the 
right  to  protect  Albanian  Catholics  belonged  to 
A-Ustria-Hungary,  but  even  more  because  the  new 
situation  in  the  Balkans,  which  our  Ministry  of 
Foreign  Affairs  has  pledged  itself  to  take  cogni- 
zance of,  logically  presupposes  that  the  laws  of 
humanity  and  civilization  must  not  be  trodden 
under  foot  so  near  our  frontiers."  On  the  same 
day  the  Catholic  organ,  the  Reichsposfy  said:  "The 
Austro-Hungarian  charge  d'affaires  in  Cetinje, 
Consul  General  Weinzetl,  has  made  energetic  de- 
mands on  tlie  Montenegrin  Government  for  satis- 
faction for  the  more-than-obvious  violations  of 
international  law  which  have  so  deeply  offended 
the  honour  of  Austria-Hungary.  Should  the  Mon- 
tenegrin Government  fail  to  meet  the  demands,  then 
diplomatic  action  will  take  a  more  cogent  form  and 
finally  even  military  coercion  will  be  adopted  if 
necessary  to  give  Austria-Hungary  full  satisfac- 
tion. Austria-Hungary  demands  the  following: 
first,  the  unhampered  exodus  of  civilians  from 
Skutari;  second,  an  investigation  of  the  death 
of  the  Catholic  priest.  Father  Palitch,  murdered 
by  Montenegrins  near  Djakova  (when  Austria- 
Hungary  laid  the  demand  before  Montenegro  that 
the  bestial  assassination  of  this  priest  be  investi- 
gated in  the  presence  of  an  Austro-Hungarian 
Consular  official,  the  Montenegrin  Government  re- 
fused to  comply,  declaring  that  in  districts  occupied 
by  Montenegrins,  Montenegrins  only  had  the  right 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  153 

to  conduct  Investigations.  Tliis  reply  signifies 
an  unfriendly  attitude  toward  Austria-Hungary); 
third,  the  coercive  measures  to  force  Albanians 
into  Orthodoxy  must  cease  lienceforth;  fourth,  com- 
plete satisfaction  must  be  given  for  the  lawless  acts 
which  were  committed  by  Montenegrin  military 
and  civil  authorities  against  the  steamer  Skodra  at 
San  Giovanni  di  Medua."  In  conclusion,  this 
article  stated:  "What  will  happen  next  will  depend 
entirely  upon  the  behaviour  of  the  Montenegrin 
Government.  Most  likely  the  crisis  will  speedily 
develop,  but  important  as  the  grievances  of  our 
monarchy  and  Italy  are,  the  underlying  cause  of 
the  crisis  is  the  desire  of  Montenegro  and  Serbia  to 
capture  the  town  of  Skutari  and  thus  cut  off  for 
Albania  the  very  possibility  of  existence  for  the 
future." 

The  lawless  acts  which  were  committed  by 
Montenegrin  military  and  civil  authorities  against 
the  steamer  Skodra  took  place  when  the  Hun- 
garian steamer  Skodra y  owned  by  the  steamship 
company  "Ungaro-Croata,"  was  commandeered 
by  the  Montenegrin  authorities  to  help  disembark 
helpless  Serbian  soldiers  from  Greek  transports 
which  were  being  shelled  by  a  Turkish  warship  in 
the  harbour  of  San  Giovanni  di  INIedua.  As  both 
skipper  and  crew  of  the  Skodra  were  blood  kin  to 
these  Serbian  soldiers  and  gave  their  assistance 
gladly  the  commandeering  was  of  course  only  a 
formality.     This  act  of  mercy  was.  In  spite  of  this. 


154  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

branded  as  lawless  by  our  scrupulously  law-abiding 
diplomats  who  had  seized  and  held  whole  prov- 
inces contrary  to  law.  In  order  to  enforce  our 
demands  upon  our  new  enemy — this  time  an  arid 
patch  of  mountain  country  inhabited  by  250,000 
people — ^we  dispatched  a  whole  squadron  of  our 
fleet  in  battle  array  to  the  Montenegrin  coast. 
Thus  seven  battleships,  an  equal  number  of 
cruisers,  and  a  whole  flotilla  of  torpedo  boats 
patrolled  the  open  roadstead  outside  the  shallow 
harbour  of  Antivari.  Truly  Goliath  was  on  the  war- 
path against  David!  And  Goliath  had  the  back- 
ing of  the  greatest  military  power  on  earth.  On 
March  23d  an  inspired  article  in  the  Nord- 
deutsche  Allgemeine  Zeitung  said:  *' Austria-Hun- 
gary is  determined  to  secure  satisfaction  from 
Montenegro  for  her  violations  of  international  law. 
In  so  doing  she  is  acting  not  only  for  the  protection 
of  her  own  violated  rights  and  interests  but  also  for 
the  protection  of  international  law  and  for  the 
principles  of  European  civilization." 

The  Austro-Hungarian  version  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  Franciscan  monk,  Father  Angelus 
Palitch,  met  his  death  was  as  follows:  On  March 
7th  several  fanatical  orthodox  ministers  together 
with  some  Montenegrin  soldiers  attempted  to  com- 
pel 300  Albanian  Roman  Catholics  to  embrace  the 
orthodox  faith.  The  300  were  tied  with  ropes  and 
given  their  choice  between  orthodoxy  and  death. 
Among  the  300  was  Father  Palitch  who,  on  his  re- 


AUSTRO-GERJVIAN  INTRIGUE  155 

fusal  to  abjure  his  faith,  was  beaten  with  the  butt 
ends  of  rifles  and  finally  bayoneted.  According  to 
the  Montenegrin  version  of  the  affair  Father  Pa- 
Htch  was  arrested  by  the  Montenegrin  poHce  for 
attempting  to  stir  up  revolt  against  Montenegro 
among  the  Albanians  and  was  being  taken  under 
escort  from  Ipek  to  Djakova,  together  with  other 
suspected  persons,  to  be  tried  on  this  charge.  On 
the  journey  he  broke  away  from  his  escort  and  at- 
tempted to  escape.  His  guards  three  times  sum- 
moned him  to  stop,  but  he  paid  no  attention, 
whereupon  they  fired  upon  him  and  killed  him. 
These  two  contradictory  reports  about  the  death 
of  Father  Palitch  were  all  that  the  public  had  to  go 
by  until  the  Vienna  Zeit,  on  April  13th,  came  out 
with  the  following  recital:  "Two  interesting  docu- 
ments are  published  here  to-day.  The  one  is  a 
manifesto  of  the  Committee  for  the  Promotion  of 
Austro-Hungarian  Literary  and  Humanitarian  In- 
terests in  Albania.  The  other  is  an  oflBcial  Ser- 
bian statement  on  the  post-mortem  inquiry  into 
the  death  of  the  Franciscan  friar,  Father  Pahtch, 
whose  alleged  martyrdom  for  refusal  to  embrace 
orthodoxy  figured  prominently  in  recent  Austro- 
Hungarian  semi-official  indictments  of  Montenegro. 
According  to  this  Serbian  statement  the  post- 
mortem inquiry  was  made  yesterday  at  Djakova  by 
two  Montenegrin  doctors  and  one  Serbian  doctor 
in  the  presence  *of  the  consuls.'  The  inquiry 
established  the  fact  that  Father  Palitch  was  killed 


156  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

at  a  considerable  distance  by  rifle  shots.  There 
were  no  traces  of  bayonet  wounds.  Should  this 
statement  be  substantiated  by  the  consular  re- 
ports, the  blood-curdling  story  of  Father  Palitch's 
martyrdom,  supplied  to  the  Neue  Freie  Presse 
from  an  unspecified  source,  and  reproduced  by  the 
Reichspost,  would  rank  with  the  stories  of  the  treat- 
ment of  Consul  Prochaska;  and  the  Montenegrin 
declaration  that  Father  Palitch  was  shot  in  at- 
tempting to  flee  from  political  arrest  would  be  con- 
firmed." 

The  death  of  Father  Palitch  as  a  possible 
casus  belli  was  rendered  finally  untenable  by  this 
brief  announcement  which  appeared  three  days 
later:  "The  mixed  commission  which  has  been 
holding  an  inquiry  into  the  death  of  the  Catholic 
priest,  Palitch,  who  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of 
publicly  inciting  the  Albanians  against  the  Monte- 
negrin authorities  and  was  killed,  yesterday  signed 
its  report.  It  is  declared  that  the  commission  found 
no  convincing  proof  that  Palitch  was  beaten  and 
maltreated  in  prison  by  the  Montenegrin  authori- 
ties, and  that  no  evidence  was  forthcoming  of  his 
premeditated  murder  by  the  Montenegrin  escort." 
Disappointing  as  these  findings  must  have  been  to 
the  Ballplatz,  our  war  leaders  at  least  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  knowing  that  they  had  presented  our 
"energetic  demands  for  satisfaction  "  to  Montenegro 
before  the  chief  charge  upon  which  they  rested  had 
been  shattered. 


AUSTRO-GERIVIAN  INTRIGUE  157 

Even  before  this  disappointing  report  appeared, 
however,  the  plans  of  the  Ballplatz  for  bringing  on 
war  had  been  foiled  again  by  the  good  offices  of  the 
abhorred  Conference  of  Ambassadors.  On  March 
28th  they  had  sent  a  collective  communication  re- 
garding Skutari  to  the  Montenegrin  Government  to 
the  effect  that,  since  the  powers  had  reached  an 
agreement  regarding  the  northern  and  northeastern 
frontiers  of  Albania,  Montenegro  was  "invited": 
first,  to  raise  the  siege  of  Skutari;  second,  to  dis- 
continue hostilities  in  the  territory  allotted  to 
Albania  according  to  the  aforementioned  agree- 
ment; third,  to  proceed  rapidly  to  the  evacuation 
of  this  territory.  Naturally  enough  Montenegro 
and  her  ally,  Serbia,  had  no  opportunity  to  decline 
these  unwelcome  "invitations."  Thus  for  the 
third  time  our  diplomacy,  and  that  of  Berlin,  won 
its  ostensible  object  and  lost  its  real  object — war. 
A  clamour  of  protest  again  arose  against  Berchtold 
and  his  associates  for  deceiving  the  public.  Doctor 
Kramarz,  the  Czech  authority  on  foreign  affairs, 
again  voiced  his  periodic  protest:  "The  Prochaska 
affair  is  not  the  only  thing  that  Kania  (the  head  of 
the  "Literary"  Bureau)  is  guilty  of.  A  second 
such  affair  is  this  of  the  Franciscan  monk,  Palitch. 
To  him  awful  things  had  happened;  to  this  man 
originally  represented  by  the  Nene  Freie  Presse  to  be 
a  saint.  That  he  scarcely  deserved.  We  have 
done  that  which  would  be  possible  in  no  other 
country:  we  have  kept  the  augmented  effectives 


158  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

under  the  colours  for  six  months  and  our  army  partly 
mobilized.  Everywhere  the  report  was  spread  that 
Russian  troops  were  mobilized  in  great  numbers 
on  our  frontier.  Not  a  word  of  this  was  true.  I 
declare  on  good  authority  that  Russia  retained 
under  the  colours  only  her  last  year's  class  of  re- 
servists and  they  were  not  held  on  the  Austrian 
frontier,  but  in  the  interior  of  Russia." 

So  serious  was  the  tension  in  Europe  created  by 
our  never-ending  demands  and  bellicose  attitude 
that  the  ambassadors  at  the  London  Conference 
were  in  a  state  of  mind  to  yield  to  our  every  whim 
rather  than  have  us  run  amuck  and  plunge  Europe 
into  the  horrible  disaster  of  a  general  war.  Con- 
sequently they  complied  with  their  usual  alacrity 
to  our  next  demand  which  was  for  a  naval  demon- 
stration of  the  Great  Powers  against  Montenegro 
to  enforce  the  decisions  of  the  Conference.  Hence 
the  Great  Powers,  including  even  Russia,  who  au- 
thorized France  to  represent  her,  in  order  to  humour 
and  temporarily  pacify  our  war-mad  diplomats, 
consented  to  participate  in  this  international  opera 
comique.  The  might  of  Europe  fittingly  symbol- 
ized by  its  ironclads  assembled  in  the  Adriatic  to 
threaten  Lilliput  Montenegro  with  death  and  de- 
struction if  she  did  not  obey  the  orders  which  had 
been  sent  her.  But  for  our  statesmen  and  their 
Berlin  collaborators  this  apparently  humorous  per- 
formance known  as  the  Flotten-Demonstration  had 
a    very   much    more    serious    purpose    than    the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  159 

coercing  of  helpless  little  Montenegro.  They 
hoped  by  means  of  this  cooperative  action  to 
commit,  at  least  diplomatically,  Russia,  France, 
Great  Britain,  and  Italy  to  their  policy  of  hostility 
toward  Montenegro  and  Serbia;  indeed  in  some  de- 
gree at  least  to  their  whole  Balkan  policy.  If  this 
hope  were  realized  they  might  reasonably  expect 
to  secure  the  consent  of  the  powers  to  occupy 
Montenegro  and  Serbia  just  as  they  had  in  1878 
won  their  consent  to  occupy  temporarily  Bosnia 
and  Herzegovina.  With  this  once  accomplished 
they  would  be  free  to  undertake  the  conquest  and 
partition  of  Russia — their  real  ambition. 

In  commenting  on  this  naval  demonstration 
the  Neue  Freie  Presse  said:  "England  and  France 
are  represented  among  the  men-of-war  lying  at 
anchor  in  the  roadstead  of  Antivari  [a  Montenegrin 
port].  The  commanders  of  the  vessels  will  do  the 
rest.  Their  soldiers'  hearts  will  not  permit  them 
to  allow  their  fleets  to  become  an  object  of  de- 
rision. There  is  no  retreat,  even  for  Russia,  who 
empowered  France  to  represent  her.  The  dip- 
lomats can  wind  themselves  like  snakes  and  swallow 
their  words.  The  admirals  will  not  do  this:  they 
will  not  bring  shame  to  their  flags."  The  next  day 
the  official  press  became  still  more  threatening 
and  outspoken  when  the  same  organ  announced: 
*'The  monarchy  was  not  one  of  the  originators  of 
the  London  Conference  of  Ambassadors.  It  will 
submit  to  its  decisions  as  long  as  it  sees  fit.     Sku- 


160  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

tari  must  become  Albanian,  be  it  with  the  consent  of 
Europe  or,  if  it  must  be,  and  Russia  thus  wills  it, 
without  the  consent  of  Europe.  The  monarchy  in 
demanding  this  will  not  stand  alone."  Light  was 
thrown  upon  this  final  sentence  a  few  days  later 
when  on  April  4th  Herr  Von  Jagow,  the  German 
Foreign  Secretary,  said  in  the  Reichstag:  **The 
German  Empire  stands  faithfully  with  Austria." 
And  a  few  days  after  that  its  meaning  was  made 
still  clearer  by  Chancellor  Bethmann-Hollweg 
when  he  said  in  the  Reichstag  in  introducing  the 
army  and  taxation  bills:  '''One  thing  is  beyond 
doubt.  If  it  should  ever  come  to  a  European  con- 
flagration which  woidd  set  Slavdom  against  Ger- 
mandomy  it  would  be  for  us  a  disadvantage  that 
the  position  in  the  balance  of  forces,  which  was 
hitherto  occupied  by  European  Turkey,  should 
now  be  filled  in  part  by  Slav  states.^'  These  words, 
coming  as  they  did  after  the  Chancellor's  announce- 
ment in  December  that  Germany  would  "fight" 
for  Austria,  were  particularly  full  of  sinister  sig- 
nificance. He  continued :  "We  are  endeavouring  to 
lessen  the  tension  between  Austria-Hungary  and 
Russia  concerning  the  Balkan  problems  as  far  as 
possible,  but  in  spite  of  this  we  must  not  put  our 
head  in  the  sand.  That  we  shall  remain  faithful  to 
our  ally  beyond  mere  diplomatic  mediation  goes 
without  saying." 

These  words  created  indignation  among  all  Slavs 
everywhere  and  they  were  by  no  means  accepted 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  161 

without  question  by  the  more  liberal  German  lead- 
ers. The  social  democrat,  Haase,  for  instance,  in 
referring  to  the  Chancellor's  reference  to  the  con- 
flict between  Slavdom  and  Germandom,  said: 
*'The  German  people,  and  I  think  I  know  the  senti- 
ments of  the  great  masses,  will  refuse  to  go  to  war 
for  the  imperialistic  aims  of  the  Austrian  prestige 
policy."  The  frivolity  of  such  an  undertaking 
would  cause  indignation  such  as  we  have  never  yet 
witnessed  in  Germany.  The  Russian  people  have 
no  thought  of  war." 

The  conciliatory  attitude  of  Russia  in  consent- 
ing that  Skutarl  be  awarded  to  Albania,  In  violation 
of  both  the  interests  and  the  rights  of  Montenegro 
and  Serbia,  caused  a  brief  relaxation  of  the  Inter- 
national tension  and  gave  the  peoples  of  Austria- 
Hungary  a  little  breathing  space  in  which  to 
look  about  them.  At  this  time,  on  April  12,  1913, 
Sergius  Sazonoff,  the  Russian  ^linister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  made  the  statement  that  "difference  in 
race  by  no  means  leads  inevitably  to  antagonism 
between  races."  This  was  generally  accepted  by 
the  peoples  of  Austria-Hungary  as  Russia's  reply  to 
Bethmann-HoUweg's  reference  to  "the  conflict 
between  Slavdom  and  Germandom."  It  was 
taken  as  an  assurance  that  the  Slavs  of  Russia  at 
any  rate  had  no  desire  for  war.  This  reassurance 
was  Increased  by  the  announcement  that  the 
Czar  was  to  attend  in  Berlin  the  wedding  ceremony 
of    the    Princess    Victoria    Louise,    the    Kaiser's 


162  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

daughter,  in  spite  of  the  offensive  sabre-rattUng  of 
the  German  Chancellor.  These  indications  of  a 
return  to  normal  conditions  were  gratefully  noted 
by  the  nerve-wrecked  and  tax-burdened  peoples  of 
the  Dual  Monarchy. 

Official  Austria,  however,  was  quick  to  detect 
and  resent  these  symptoms  of  a  desire  for  friendly 
relations  with  her  Teutonic  neighbours  on  the  part 
of  Russia.  As  the  surest  way  of  arousing  Russian 
resentment  the  semi-official  press  taunted  Russia 
with  having  "sold  out  the  Serbs  ten  times  over'* 
by  consenting  that  Skutari  be  taken  from  Monte- 
negro and  Serbia.  When  on  April  23d  the  news 
arrived  from  Cetinje  that  Montenegrin  troops  had 
entered  Skutari  the  Ballplatz  press  fairly  seethed 
with  rage.  The  cry  went  up:  "With  or  without 
Europe's  consent  send  our  troops  (who  were  ready 
and  waiting  on  the  Montenegrin  frontier)  to  cor- 
rect with  the  sword  the  errors  of  our  diplomacy, 
and  to  heal  with  iron  the  failures  of  our  diplo- 
macy." On  the  25th,  Count  Berchtold  made  rep- 
resentations to  the  Conference  of  Ambassadors  in 
London  asking  that  "coercive  measures  be  adopted 
against  Montenegro  because  of  her  opposition  to  the 
will  of  Europe."  "These  coercive  measures," 
read  his  message,  "should  be  carried  out  by  all 
the  powers  or  by  the  Austro-Hungarian  Monarchy 
alone  as  the  mandatory  of  Europe."  The  Neue 
Freie  Presse  said  in  an  inspired  article  commenting 
on  this  proposal:  "If  the  Great  Powers  will  act 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  163 

In  accord,  peace  will  be  preserved  and  Montenegro 
will  receive  the  proper  punishment;  should  this 
hope  be  vain  our  monarchy  will  declare,  just  as 
Count  Anton  Auersberg  says  in  one  of  his  verses: 
''Ich  bin  so  freiy  frei  zu  seirC;  there  are  only  two 
alternatives,  with  Europe  or  against  Europe,  Sku- 
tari  must  become  Albanian." 

Count  Mensdorf,  our  Ambassador  in  London, 
proposed  to  his  colleagues  of  the  Conference  that 
"they  force  Montenegro  to  evacuate  Skutari  by 
authorizing  Austria-Hungary  to  occupy  forthwith 
Montenegro's  only  harbours,  Antivari  and  Dulcigno, 
not  by  an  inter-allied  detachment  taken  from  the 
international  fleet  gathered  opposite  the  Monte- 
negrin coast,  but  through  an  expeditionary  force 
strong  enough  eventually  to  operate  against 
Skutari."  As  always.  Count  Berchtold  sought  to 
persuade  Europe  that  "Balkan  affairs  are  no  con- 
cern of  Russia's,  but  are  solely  matters  to  be  settled 
between  Austria-Hungary  on  one  side  and  Monte- 
negro or  Serbia  on  the  other.  .  .  .  Should 
diplomatic  notes  be  insufficient,  iron  must  decide!" 
At  the  same  time  he  addressed  a  circular  note  to  the 
Powers  the  gist  of  which  was:  "Austria-Hungary 
cannot  tolerate  the  situation  created  by  the  en- 
trance of  Montenegrin  troops  into  Skutari.  The 
prestige  of  the  Great  Powers  has  been  assailed. 
Austria-Hungary  therefore  invites  the  Powers  to 
decide  what  steps  are  to  be  taken  to  restore  that 
prestige.    Should  the  Powers  fail  to  arrive  at  a 


164  THE  INSroE  STORY  OF 

speedy  decision  Austria-Hungary  would  feel  com- 
pelled to  take  steps  which  would  assure  the  will  of 
the  Powers  being  respected  and  compel  Monte- 
negro to  evacuate  Skutari." 

A  statement  published  in  Vienna  on  April  27th 
said:  "In  the  course  of  Saturday  afternoon  Baron 
Conrad  von  Hoetzendorf  [Chief  of  the  General 
Staff]  had  a  long  conversation  with  Count  Berch- 
told,  and  toward  7  p.m.  went  with  him  to 
Schoenbrunn,  where  they  conferred  with  the 
Emperor  until  8:45.  This  morning's  journals  are 
careful  to  point  out  that  His  Majesty  consequently 
retired  to  rest  later  than  usual. 

"To-day  the  Austro-Hungarian  heir-apparent 
arrived  in  Vienna  and  had  a  long  audience  of  the 
Emperor  this  afternoon. 

"Baron  Conrad  von  Hoetzendorf  has  for  the  past 
week  been  urging  upon  Count  Berchtold  and  the 
Emperor  the  absolute  necessity  of  some  kind  of 
military  action  to  save  the  prestige  of  the  mon- 
archy among  the  Southern  Slavs  and  to  raise  the 
morale  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  officers,  who 
would  be  disheartened  were  their  long  winter  of 
hardship  and  effort  to  end  tamely  in  a  demobiliza- 
tion." 

About  a  week  later  semi-official  agents  of  the 
Foreign  Office  were  spreading  the  rumour  that 
"Austria-Hungary  will  to-morrow  address  an  ul- 
timatum to  Montenegro,  and  that  military  action 
against  Montenegro  will  immediately  follow  unless 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  165 

the  ultimatum  is  complied  with.  Should  Monte- 
negro resist  and  be  assisted  by  Serbia,"  add  these 
agents,  "Austria-Hungary  will  regard  the  Monte- 
negrin or  Serbian  territory  she  may  occupy  as 
territory  definitely  conquered." 

The  open  rejoicings  of  the  Slavs  of  Austria  at 
the  victory  of  little  Montenegro  over  the  hated 
Turks  still  further  increased  the  rage  and  bitterness 
of  our  military  and  diplomatic  leaders.  Tlie 
Czecho-Slavs  in  the  north,  the  Slovenes,  Croats, 
and  Serbs  in  the  south,  were  in  a  state  of  joyous 
exultation.  In  Prague,  Zagreb,  and  Ljubljana  the 
police  were  kept  busy  hauling  down  the  flags  which 
the  people  raised  in  honour  of  the  victory  of  their 
Montenegrin  and  Serbian  kinsmen. 

At  this  critical  juncture  of  affairs  we  opened  con- 
versations with  Rome  to  find  out  how  far  we  could 
rely  upon  Italian  cooperation  in  using  force  against 
recalcitrant  Montenegro.  Count  Berchtold,  as 
indeed  all  Austrian  statesmen,  was  always  more 
than  skeptical  of  Italy's  willingness  actively  to 
support  the  policies  of  her  Teutonic  allies  when  it 
came  to  a  "show  down."  Just  because  of  this 
doubt  of  Italy's  devotion  to  our  policies  we  were 
particularly  anxious  actively  to  engage  her  in  a 
military  venture  on  our  side.  We  felt  that  if  she 
could  be  induced  to  aid  us  in  forcing  the  iVIonte- 
negrins  and  Serbs  to  evacuate  Skutari  that  she 
would  then  feel  obligated  to  follow  tlie  course  once 
entered  upon  even  though  it  should  lead  to  war 


166  AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE 

against  Russia  and  France  as  we  believed  and  hoped 
it  would.  On  May  2d  Italy  announced  that  she 
had  "accepted  the  invitation  of  Austria-Hungary 
for  armed  intervention  in  Albania  by  landing 
Italian  troops  at  Valona." 

Thus  once  again  all  was  going  smoothly  for  our 
diplomacy  and  there  seemed  to  be  hardly  a  possi- 
bility that  the  long-coveted  war  could  be  again 
avoided.  Even  the  loyal  Neue  Freie  PressCy  organ 
of  the  Semitic  business  interests,  had  said  a  few 
days  before:  "Contrary  to  our  wishes  the  sword 
will  have  to  decide.  ...  In  the  next  few  days 
we  will  see  the  monarchy  underline  her  word  with 
the  sword  for  the  first  time  since  the  occupation  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina." 

The  Austrian  Poles  again  declared  their  blind 
loyalty  to  the  monarchy  and  its  Germanic  foreign 
policy.  This  they  did  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  only 
a  fortnight  before  the  Prussian  Diet  had  authorized 
an  expenditure  of  175  million  marks  for  the  ex- 
propriation of  the  Poles  of  Prussia,  and  in  spite 
of  this  comment  made  at  the  time  by  the  Prussian 
Minister,  Baron  Schorlemer:  "The  Prussian  Gov- 
ernment has  the  holy  duty  to  aid  Germandom 
{Deutschtum)  in  the  economic  and  national  strug- 
gle against  the  Poles:  this  particularly  in  view  of 
the  possibility  of  a  world  war." 


CHAPTER  Vni 

TiszA,  Austria-Hungary's  Man  of  "Blood  and 
Iron,"  Comes  to  Power,  June,  1913 

austria-hungary    urges    italy    to    join    the 
central  empires  in  european  war,  august,  1913 

IT  WAS  the  Slavs  who  once  more  frustrated  the 
cunningly  planned  Austro-German  assault  upon 
humanity.  On  the  advice  of  Russia  both  Monte- 
negro and  Serbia  surrendered  unconditionally  to 
our  demands.  On  May  6,  1913,  King  Nicholas 
of  Montenegro  informed  Sir  Edward  Grey,  as  the 
president  of  the  London  Conference  of  Ambassa- 
dors, that  he  placed  the  fate  of  Skutari  in  the  hands 
of  the  Great  Powers.  The  same  day  the  Serbs 
evacuated  Durazzo  and  again  renounced  their 
"little  window  on  the  Adriatic."  At  the  same 
time  the  Czar  showed  his  willingness  to  overlook 
the  many  evidences  of  Teutonic  spite  and  enmity 
by  carrying  out  his  previously  announced  inten- 
tion to  attend  the  marriage  in  Berlin  of  the  Kais- 
er's daughter,  the  Princess  Victoria  Louise. 

Meantime,  thanks  to  the  secret  machinations 
of  our  diplomacy,  the  strained  relations  between 
Serbia  and  Bulgaria  had  almost  reached  the  break- 

1C7 


168  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

ing  point.  Bulgaria  had  mobilized  on  Serbia's 
frontier,  ready  for  instant  attack  upon  her  ally. 
Serbia  issued  a  statement  saying  that  "a  strict 
observance  of  the  Treaty  of  Alliance  is  excluded  in 
view  of  the  results  of  the  war;  Serbia  cannot  cede 
to  Bulgaria  the  territories  conquered  by  the 
Serbian  army." 

The  yielding  of  Russia  and  her  small  proteges 
gave  our  harried  people  another  short  breathing 
space.  It  had  long  been  the  policy  of  our  govern- 
ment so  to  alarm  the  people  by  the  dangers  sup- 
posed to  be  threatening  them  from  outside  our 
borders  that  they  would  be  too  distracted  to  give 
attention  to  the  innumerable  internal  ills  with 
which  they  were  afflicted.  The  sword  of  Dam- 
ocles was  ever  suspended  over  their  heads.  But 
this  sword  was  now  blunted  by  excessive  use  and 
the  people  looked  about  them.     What  did  they  see.'^ 

In  Bohemia  relations  between  Germans  and 
Czechs  had  become  so  strained  that  the  whole 
administrative  machinery  was  paralyzed  by  the 
never-ending  obstructionist  tactics  of  the  German 
minority  faction  in  the  Diet.  The  home  budget  could 
not  be  voted  and  no  taxes  could  be  collected  in  the 
richest  crownland  of  the  monarchy.  The  war  of 
nationalities  in  Galicia  was  just  as  acute.  The 
Governor-General  threatened  to  resign  because  of 
his  inability  to  secure  any  kind  of  a  working  agree- 
ment between  the  Poles  and  the  Ruthenes.  The 
conditions  in  the  other  provinces  were  almost  as 


AUSTRO-GERIVIAN  INTRIGUE  169 

bad.  Added  to  the  never-ending  Internal  political 
and  nationalistic  conflicts  were  the  thousands  of 
economic  wounds  from  which  the  old  empire  was 
slowly  but  surely  bleeding  to  death.  By  the  mid- 
dle of  May,  1913,  the  internal  situation  had  become 
so  ominous  that  our  statesmen  dared  not  sound  the 
usual  alarms  about  the  external  dangers  which  were 
alleged  to  be  threatening  us  for  fear  of  precipitat- 
ing in  the  Delegations  a  debate  on  internal  con- 
ditions. 

In  Hungary  the  situation  was  no  less  desperate. 
Even  the  most  confirmed  optimists  began  to  despair 
of  the  future  of  the  monarchy.  The  officials  of  the 
Foreign  Office  were  particularly  gloomy.  They  felt 
that  the  disruption  of  the  ancient  empire  was  now 
inevitable.  Those  of  them  who  were  Hungarians 
were  openly  preparing  themselves  for  the  complete 
separation  of  Hungary  from  Austria.  They  even 
parcelled  out  among  themselves  the  posts  in  the 
new  Hungarian  Foreign  Office,  which,  as  they 
believed,  would  soon  be  established.  This  prospec- 
tive golden  opportunity  for  more  jobs  considerably 
mitigated  their  grief  over  the  desperate  plight  of  the 
empire.  The  heads  of  the  Government  were  faced 
with  three  alternatives.  Either  they  must  grant 
radical  reforms  which  would  transform  the  old 
empire  from  the  bottom  up  and  which  would 
abolish  the  century-old  special  privileges  of  the 
rulers  and  the  ruling  classes  including  the  Court, 
the  nobility,  the  high  ecclesiastics,  and  the  gentry. 


170  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

as  well  as  the  bankers,  merchants,  and  manufac- 
turers who  grew  rich  on  government  contracts;  or, 
secondly,  they  must  plunge  into  the  universal 
catastrophe  of  a  great  war  in  the  hope  of  flounder- 
ing through  with  their  previous  privileges  intact; 
or,  finally,  they  might  drift  on  in  the  cross  currents 
of  indescribable  confusion  until  the  constantly  in- 
creasing poverty  and  suffering  of  thegreat  masses  be- 
came insupportable  and  produced  civil  war.  Since 
the  foreign  war  alternative  was  the  only  one  which 
offered  the  ruling  classes  as  such  any  chance  of  sur- 
vival it  was  naturally  the  one  they  chose  to  act 
upon.  But  before  taking  the  great  plunge  it  was 
essential  to  put  their  house  in  order  or  at  any  rate 
to  give  it  the  temporary  appearance  of  orderliness. 
This  was  especially  necessary  in  order  to  inspire  the 
confidence  of  their  great  German  ally  who  had 
learned  from  Bismarck  to  be  distrustful  of  the 
Hungarian  portion  of  the  empire.  A  strong  man 
completely  devoted  to  the  Dual  Monarchy  in  its 
then  existing  form  and  enjoying  the  full  confidence 
of  the  ruling  classes  of  Germany  and  particularly  of 
the  German  Kaiser  himself  was  needed  in  Hungary 
to  bring  order  out  of  the  chaos  which  the  weak  and 
incompetent  government  of  Premier  Lukacs  had 
created. 

The  man  selected  for  this  task  was  Stephan 
Tisza.  "The  apple  does  not  fall  far  from  the  tree,'* 
as  the  proverb  says.  Tisza  was  a  true  son  of  his 
father — of  the  man  who  had  ruled  the  turbulent 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  171 

Magyars  with  a  rod  of  iron.  In  fact,  the  son  as 
Premier,  eight  years  before,  had  shown  the  same 
iron  hand.  And  last  but  not  least,  Tisza  was 
persona  gratissima  to  Kaiser  Wilhelm.  In  him 
therefore  were  concentrated  the  hopes  of  the 
Viennese  Court  camarilla.  He  must  be  their 
saviour  from  this  dangerous  situation.  He  was  the 
relentless  man  who,  with  "blood  and  iron,"  would 
drive  the  discontented,  desperate  masses  into  the 
reeking  slaughter  houses  of  a  great  war.  Tisza 
did  not  disappoint  their  hopes.  He  became  the 
stormy  petrel  of  the  mighty  hurricane  which  pres- 
ently swept  over  Europe.  He  was  a  man  of  un- 
flinching determination,  apparently  without  nerves, 
and  even  in  the  most  desperate  situations  his 
presence  of  mind  never  deserted  him.  He  sub- 
jected himself  to  iron  discipline  and  demanded  that 
his  subordinates  do  the  same.  He  was  always 
permeated  with  the  consciousness  of  being  in  the 
service  of  his  king,  and  subordinated  his  personal 
affairs  to  what  he  believed  to  be  the  interests  of  that 
service.  He  had  had  an  operation  on  his  eyes 
which  prevented  his  glancing  to  right  or  left  with- 
out turning  his  head.  He  had  always  to  look 
straight  ahead.  This  physical  limitation  seemed 
to  have  transmitted  itself  to  his  character.  He 
pursued  his  purposes  relentlessly  without  turning  to 
right  or  left.  Bismarck  had  remarked  that  in 
Hungary  there  were  only  two  kinds  of  politicians — 
lawyers  and  hussars.     Tisza  was  a  hussar.     When 


172  THE  INSroE  STORY  OF 

asked,  on  assuming  power,  how  he  would  overcome 
the  opposition  of  the  deputies  who  were  not  con- 
vinced by  his  arguments  he  rephed:  "I  shall  bring 
in  the  soldiers  or  the  police."  On  June  4,  1913, 
just  after  Tisza  had  taken  office  this  comment  on 
his  methods  appeared  in  the  press:  "A  year  ago 
to-day  Count  Tisza,  as  President  of  the  Hungarian 
Parliament,  ordered  the  police  to  eject  the  ob- 
structionist opposition  from  the  Chamber.  To-day, 
the  captain  of  the  Hungarian  Parliamentary 
Guards  was  belabouring  an  opposition  deputy  with 
his  sabre  in  the  Chamber." 

This  was  the  way  Tisza  carried  out  the  Emperor's 
mandate  to  bring  the  Hungarian  Parliamentary 
opposition  into  line  with  the  policies  of  the  Govern- 
ment. On  June  11th  the  new  Premier  thus  ad- 
dressed the  Labour  Party:  "Does  not  the  external 
situation  demand  that  we  abandon  all  pusil- 
lanimity; does  not  the  external  situation  require  of 
each  member  of  the  nation  that  he  do  everything 
in  his  power  in  order  that  the  whole  attention  of  the 
whole  nation  be  concentrated  upon  its  great  vital 
interests,  which  perhaps  now  will  decide  the  fate  of 
the  nation  for  centuries  to  come.^"  In  a  speech 
the  next  day  he  said:  "The  harmonious  coopera- 
tion of  all  the  factors  in  the  monarchy  is  a  necessity 
both  for  upholding  the  monarchy  as  a  great  power 
and  because  the  very  existence  of  the  Hungarian 
nation  is  dependent  on  the  maintenance  of  the 
monarchy  as  a  great  power."     In  conclusion  he 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  173 

said:  "I  am  convinced  that  the  Hungarian  nation 
and  tlie  monarchy  will  find  their  places  and  will 
emerge  from  this  development  with  a  new  lustre; 
but  we  must  throw  all  our  mental  and  material 
powers,  all  our  political  ripeness  and  all  our  moral 
preparedness  Into  the  service  of  this  great  aim; 
great  Interests  are  endangered;  we  have  been 
thrown  Into  the  scales  of  world  history  and  upon 
our  own  weight  depends  whether  we  shall  make 
those  scales  rise  or  fall."  Thus  through  the  mouth 
of  "the  bloody  TIsza"  did  Austria-Hungary  chal- 
lenge Russia  in  particular  and  the  Entente  in  gen- 
eral to  mortal  combat! 

The  Premier's  words  were  supported  by  that 
veteran  war  organ  0 ester r.  Rundschau  in  an  article 
entitled:  "Austria-Hungary  and  Russia's  Historic 
Mission"  signed  by  "Austrlacus."  The  modest 
anonymous  author  said:  "The  Japanese-Russian 
War  proved  that  Russia,  before  whose  might  all 
Europe  trembled,  was  not  invincible  and  after  the 
defeat  of  Russia  in  the  Far  East,  not  only  the  people 
of  this  empire,  but  the  whole  of  Europe,  began  to 
breathe  more  freely.  Nevertheless,  world  peace 
Is  still  in  great  danger,  as  can  be  clearly  seen  by  the 
attitude  of  Russia  in  the  Balkan  crisis.  Russia 
must  therefore  be  weakened  as  Bismarck  at  first 
outlined,  because  only  a  weakened  Russia  will  keep 
the  peace."  A  second  article  in  the  same  journal, 
written  this  time  by  a  "High  Officer,"  states: 
"Love  of  peace  means  fear  of  war,  fear  before  that 


174  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

elementary  force  which  undermines  the  old  and 
decayed,  and  causes  new  buds  to  spring  forth.  We 
fear  in  case  of  misfortune  that  the  standing  of  the 
monarchy  as  a  great  power  may  be  jeopardized. 
Austria-Hungary,  Rumania,  and  Bulgaria  would 
make  a  splendid  Balkan  Triple  Alliance,  established 
on  a  solid  foundation  and  in  which  each  member 
would  find  a  free  field  for  its  own  activities  in  spite 
of  its  collaboration  with  the  others.  .  .  .  Serbia 
would  thus  have  her  hands  bound.  Austria- 
Hungary  could  then  bring  into  action  nearly  her 
whole  military  forces  against  her  strongest  enemy 
[i.  e.,  Russia]." 

As  has  been  mentioned  before,  the  creation  of 
Albania  by  the  fiat  of  the  Great  Powers  deprived 
Serbia  of  her  longed-for  outlet  on  the  Adriatic.  As 
a  consequence  of  this  action  of  the  Powers,  Serbia 
declined  to  turn  over  to  Bulgaria  the  ^portions  of 
Macedonia  which  had  been  assigned  to  her  by  the 
Treaty  of  Alliance. 

Here  was  an  opportunity  for  our  diplomats  to 
sow  discord  between  the  Balkan  allies  and  disrupt 
the  Balkan  League  which  seriously  menaced  our 
aspirations  in  the  Balkans.  In  these  efforts  we 
were  successful  despite  the  attempt  of  Russia  to 
prevent  a  fratricidal  war  between  the  two  Balkan 
states. 

Fresh  from  a  conference  vnth  Count  Berchtold, 
Tisza  thus  stated  our  policy  in  the  war  which, 
through  the  intrigues  of  our  diplomacy,  was  now  im- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  175 

pending  between  Bulgaria  and  Serbia:  "Our  starting 
point  is  naturally  that  here  also  the  Balkan  States 
are  independent,  and  that  they  are,  consequently, 
free  to  choose  their  own  method  of  settling  their  dif- 
ferences. They  may — and  we  should  deplore  it 
deeply  if  they  did,  but  they  are  entitled  to  do  so — 
choose  the  method  of  war,  or  they  may  choose 
mediation  or  a  tribunal  of  arbitration.  .  .  . 
Any  other  procedure*  would  possess  the  character 
of  an  intervention  and  would  be  totally  incom- 
patible with  the  cardinal  point  of  our  policy,  w^hich 
is  the  independence  of  the  Balkan  States." 

King  Ferdinand's  reply  to  the  Czar's  appeal  sug- 
gests that  he  and  Count  Tisza  were  at  this  time 
"two  minds  with  but  a  single  thought."  He  re- 
plied: "The  Balkan  States  are  strong  enough  to 
decide  themselves  concerning  their  weal  and  woe 
and  will  be  faithful  to  every  Great  Power  that  will 
respect  their  independence." 

Soon  after  this  on  July  2,  1913,  King  Ferdi- 
nand's armies,  relying  upon  our  military  interven- 
tion to  assure  their  success,  were  hurled  upon  their 
Serbian  allies.  They  were  speedily  and  painfully 
disillusioned.  Before  our  diplomacy  had  time  to 
prepare  the  way  for  military  intervention  the 
Serbian  armies,  by  a  series  of  lightning-like  blows, 
had  crushed  their  attackers  and  were  marching 


*It  should  here  be  recalled  ihat  the  Treaty  of  Alliance  l>pt\veen  Rulgaria 
and  Serbia  provided  that  any  irreconcilable  differences  between  them  should 
be  decided  by  the  Czar  of  Russia. 


176  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

victoriously  toward  Sofia.  Before  our  diplomats 
had  recovered  from  their  painful  stupefaction  at 
this  sudden  and  unexpected  turn  of  events  the 
Bulgars  had  on  July  10th  placed  their  fate  in 
the  hands  of  Russia.  Our  lamentations  were  loud 
and  long.  "The  east  flank  of  the  Triple  Alliance 
is  crushed,"  so  they  ran;  *'the  whole  Triple 
Alliance  has  suffered  a  loss  of  power  which  cannot 
be  made  good  by  placing  our  armies  on  an  even 
higher  peace  footing."  Just  as  when  Skutari  was 
taken,  the  official  lamentations  were  drowned  by 
cries  of  joy  wherever  Slavs  were  living.  Little 
Serbia  stood  triumphant  on  the  battle-field  once' 
more.  In  the  wreck  of  their  schemes  our  diplo- 
macy had,  however,  one  great  consolation  which' 
was  thus  expressed:  "Beside  the  corpse  of  Bulgaria 
lies  also  the  corpse  of  the  Balkan  Alliance,  that 
innermost,  true  alliance,  the  union  of  states  and 
peoples  who  are  striving  toward  a  single  object; 
that  alliance  will  never  rise  from  the  dead." 

No  amount  of  explanation,  however,  could  alter 
the  fact  that  the  outcome  of  the  Balkan  Wars  had 
been  a  severe  blow  to  the  prestige  of  the  Teutonic 
Powers  and  was  likely  to  postpone.  If  It  did  not 
completely  wreck,  their  scheme  for  the  creation 
of  a  Mittel-Europa.  Turkey,  the  protege  of 
Germany,  had  been  practically  excluded  from 
Europe.  From  the  wreck  of  the  Ottoman  Empire 
arose  greatly  enlarged  and  strengthened,  Serbia, 
Bulgaria,  and  Greece.     Not  only  had  the  territories 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  177 

of  these  states  been  enlarged  but  their  national 
consciousness  had  been  stimulated. 

Moreover,  in  both  of  the  Balkan  Wars  our  diplo- 
mats had  "backed  the  wrong  horse."  Our  dis- 
appointed war  leaders  determined,  therefore,  to 
strike  Serbia  before  she  was  able  to  recover  from 
the  wounds  of  the  Balkan  struggle.  INIucli  de- 
pended upon  Italy's  attitude,  because  at  this  time 
we  were  not  disposed  to  risk  starting  the  war  with- 
out Italy's  adherence.  Accordingly,  we  asked 
Italy  whether  she  would  support  us  in  an  attack  on 
Serbia — whether  she  would  accept  our  view  that 
the  attack  was  defensive  and  that  therefore  she 
was  obligated  to  aid  us  under  the  terms  of  the 
Triple  Alliance.  In  a  speech  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  on  December  5,  1914,  Giovanni  Gio- 
litti,  the  Italian  Premier,  said  of  this  effort:  "Dur- 
ing the  Balkan  War,  on  August  9,  1913,  I  received 
the  following  telegram  from  the  late  Marquis  di 
San  Giuliano,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs:  'Austria 
has  communicated  to  us  and  Germany  that  it  has 
been  their  intention  to  act  against  Serbia,  defining 
such  action  as  defensive  and  hoping  for  an  appli- 
cation of  a  casus  foederis  by  the  Triple  Alliance, 
which  I  consider  inapplicable.'  I  answered  Mar- 
(luis  di  San  Giuliano  thus:  'If  Austria  attacks 
Serbia  a  casus  fa'deris  evidently  docs  not  exist.  It 
is  an  action  she  undertakes  on  her  own  account. 
It  is  necessary  to  declare  this  to  Austria  in  the  most 
formal  manner,  hoping  that  Germany  will  act  to 


178  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

dissuade  Austria  from  a  very  dangerous  ad- 
venture. 

Meantime,  Count  Berchtold  had  repeated  con- 
ferences with  the  Emperor  at  Bad  Ischl,  the  im- 
perial summer  residence.  One  such  conference  was 
held  on  July  5  th  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Second 
Balkan  War,  when  Bulgaria  attacked  Serbia.  Our 
immediate  forcible  intervention  for  Bulgaria  was 
considered  but  vetoed  because  of  Italy's  doubtful 
attitude.  At  later  conferences  held  on  the  16th 
and  17th  of  July,  when  Bulgaria  already  lay  shat- 
tered on  the  battle-fields,  we  considered  whether 
we  should  intervene  to  prevent  Serbia  reaping  the 
advantage  of  her  victory.  We  decided,  however, 
that  there  was  still  hope  that  the  peace  terms  about 
to  be  made  at  Bucharest  might  be  twisted  to  our 
advantage  and  hence  we  once  more  stayed  our 
"clenched  fist  raised  about  to  strike." 

In  spite  of  the  protestations  of  King  Ferdinand 
the  Peace  Conference  at  Bucharest  took  the  normal 
course  of  conferences  between  victors  and  van- 
quished. By  August  5th  the  growing  resentment 
and  alarm  of  the  Ballplatz  was  thus  expressed  by 
one  of  its  mouthpieces:  "The  Bucharest  peace 
pourparlers  are  liable  to  cause  anxiety  in  Austria- 
Hungary.  The  situation  created  by  the  exagger- 
ated demands  of  Serbia  and  Greece  as  well  as  other 
causes  are  unhappily  bringing  nearer  and  nearer 
the  necessity  for  the  revision  by  Austria-Hungary 
of  the  whole  peace  work."     It  will  be  observed  that 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  179 

our  tender  solicitude  for  complete  independence  of 
action  among  the  Balkan  States  began  to  wane 
now  that  such  independent  action  was  not  to  our 
liking.  From  then  on  the  necessity  for  the  re- 
vision of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest  became  our 
insistent  cry.  The  Peace  Conference  at  Bucharest 
adjourned  on  August  8th.  It  will  be  noted  that  it 
was  at  this  very  time  that  we  asked  Italy  whether 
she  would  support  us  in  a  "defensive  attack"  upon 
Serbia.  Two  days  later  Count  Berchtold  made 
this  official  comment  on  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest: 
"International  revision  or  political  revision,  that 
is  the  question  which  must  be  decided  at  the 
present  time,"  and  at  the  same  time  he  went  again 
to  Bad  Ischl  to  discuss  the  situation  with  the 
Emperor.  The  old  monarch  was  much  impressed 
by  Italy's  decisive  answer  to  our  overtures  and  felt 
that  our  diplomacy  had  blundered  again  in  leading 
us  unto  a  position  where  we  could  not  obtain  the 
support  of  our  southern  ally. 

Undoubtedly  Kaiser  Wilhelm  shared  our  em- 
peror's disappointment  over  the  Treaty  of  Bucha- 
rest, but  he  shrewdly  concealed  it.  In  fact,  he  at 
once  telegraphed  King  Carol  of  Rumania  that  he 
accepted  the  Peace  of  Bucharest  as  final.  He  be- 
gan also  to  show  special  favour  to  Rumania. 

The  Ballplatz,  on  the  contrary,  came  out  with 
the  statement:  "The  result  of  the  Bucharest 
Peace  Conference  cannot  be  considered  as  final, 
but  at  best  as  furnishing  valuable  material  for  a 


180  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

conference  of  the  Powers  which  will  be  called  upon 
to  revise  the  findings  of  the  Balkan  States."  The 
best  explanation  of  this  apparent  conflict  between 
the  views  of  Vienna  and  Berlin  is  given  by  Baron 
Von  Chlumetzky,  the  spokesman  of  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand,  in  his  publication  Oesferr. 
Rundschau*  from  which  we  have  so  often  quoted. 
In  it  he  says:  "Austria-Hungary  was  obliged  to 
put  its  weight  in  the  scales  in  favour  of  Bulgaria, 
if  it  did  not  want  to  betray  the  great  interests 
that  were  at  stake.  The  statesmen  of  the  Triple 
Alliance  must  not  be  afraid  to  show  occasionally 
divergent  principles,  if  this  serves  the  cause  of 
the  Triple  Alliance  itself  by  preventing  the  for- 
mation of  a  Balkan  confederation  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Triple  Entente.  If  Count  Berch- 
told  and  Herr  Von  Jagow,  following  the  principle 
of  the  division  of  labour — by  separate  marches 
and  united  attack — come  even  one  step  nearer 
their  objective,  they  may  easily  ignore  the  frog 
croaks  over  the  apparent  estrangement  between 
Vienna  and  Berlin." 

On  August  26th,  while  we  were  clamouring  for  the 
revision  of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest  and  blackening 
the  names  of  Serbia  and  Russia,  the  long-suffering 
Czar  again  extended  an  olive  branch  to  our  em- 
peror. The  Russian  Ambassador  presented  to 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  an  invitation  from  Czar 
Nicholas  to  bless  the  Russian  chapel  in  Leipzig 

•Vol.  36,  July-September,  1913. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  181 

which  had  been  erected  to  commemorate  the 
victory  over  Napoleon  in  1813  and  which  was  to  be 
consecrated  simultaneously  with  the  great  German 
monument  erected  for  the  same  purpose.  This 
friendly  act  on  the  part  of  the  Czar  and  his  govern- 
ment stirred  even  the  deadened  conscience  of  old 
Francis  Joseph  and  he  once  more  awoke  to  the 
character  of  the  conspiracies  which  were  being 
hatched  by  Francis  Ferdinand  and  his  confederates, 
Berchtold,  Von  Hoetzendorf,  and  the  irrepressible 
Tisza,  who  was  striving  to  become  known  to  fame 
as  the  Bismarck  of  Austria-Hungary.  While  the 
old  emperor  remained  in  this  mood  the  heads 
of  those  who  had  brought  such  indescribable  mis- 
fortunes upon  the  people  of  the  monarchy  were 
in  danger  of  falling.  By  the  middle  of  September, 
1913,  the  imperial  disapproval  had  led  both  Count 
Berchtold  and  Baron  Conrad  von  Hoetzendorf  to 
feel  a  longing  for  retirement  and  the  quiet  life. 
Count  Berchtold  was  preparing  to  retire  to  the 
management  of  his  vast  estates  in  Hungary  or 
Moravia.  Any  change  in  the  "Old  Gray  House" 
would  have  been  welcomed  by  the  people  generally 
as  a  change  for  the  better. 

Baron  Conrad  von  Hoetzendorf,  Chief  of  the 
General  Staff,  whose  official  demise  would  have 
been  even  more  welcome  to  the  people,  felt  that  he 
had  been  flung  aside  by  the  inexorable  course  of 
events  on  the  world  stage.  For  the  moment  he 
was  tired  and  disgusted.     One  consideration  only 


182  AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE 

kept  him  and  his  tool,  Count  Berchtold,  from 
quitting  in  disgust — the  consohng  thought  that 
the  aged  emperor  could  not  hang  on  much  longer 
and  that  then  Francis  Ferdinand  would  become 
the  "All  Highest"  and  they  would  be  free  to  work 
"their  own  sweet  will."  Although  their  master 
never  became  emperor,  in  less  than  a  year  he  had 
in  quite  a  different  way  rewarded  them  for  their 
patience  by  bringing  them  their  heart's  desire — ^war 
against  Serbia  and  Russia- 


CHAPTER  IX 

Emperor  Francis  Joseph  Pronounces  World 
War  Inevitable,  May,  1914 

TISZA  counts  on  HALF  THE  GERMAN  ARMY  FOR  WAR 
against   RUSSIA,    MARCH,    1914 

IN  APPROACHING  the  last  series  of  Austro- 
Hungarian  machinations  in  the  years  1913-1914 
I  wish  to  quote  the  prophetic  views  of  three 
statesmen.  First,  Count  Andrassy,  fresh  from  the 
Congress  of  BerHn  at  which  Austria  received  the 
mandate  temporarily  to  occupy  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina, said  to  Emperor  Francis  Joseph:  "Maj- 
esty, I  am  bringing  you  the  keys  which  will  unlock 
for  us  the  gate  to  the  Orient."  Second,  Peter 
Shuvaloff,  the  Russian  statesman,  wrote  four  years 
later:  "I  am  convinced  that  the  giving  away  of 
Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  to  Austria  will  one  day 
imperil  the  European  peace.  From  there  will  come 
the  spark  which  will  ignite  the  powder,  and  in  the 
glow  of  this  all-devouring  fire  the  Slav  problem 
will  then  have  to  be  solved."  Finally,  Ivan  Hribar, 
a  Jugoslav  statesman  said  ten  years  before  the 
world  war:  "Bosnia  will  be  the  grave  of  Austria- 
Hungary." 

183 


184  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Indeed,  "whom  the  Gods  would  destroy  they 
first  make  mad."  It  was  as  if  an  inexorable  fate 
was  driving  the  old  empire  to  self-destruction.  We 
were  at  peace  with  all  our  neighbours.  We  were 
fairly  prosperous,  although  labouring  under  old 
internal  evils,  until  Count  Aehrenthal  conceived 
the  idea  of  curing  the  latter  by  war;  war  with 
Serbia,  war  with  Russia,  and,  if  necessary,  war 
even  with  Italy.  With  a  fanatical  tenacity  we 
evoked  the  war-spectre  until  it  became  a  ghastly 
reality. 

The  years  1914-15  were  regarded  in  Austria- 
Hungary  as  the  time  limit  for  starting  a  successful 
war  against  Serbia  and  Russia.  There  were  several 
reasons  for  this. 

First,  Bulgaria  was  humiliated  and  the  Balkan 
League  was  shattered.  It  was  important  for  us 
not  to  allow  the  situation  in  the  Balkans  to  crys- 
talize  so  as  to  prevent  a  revision  of  the  Treaty  of 
Bucharest. 

Second,  the  destruction  of  the  Balkan  League 
brought  in  its  wake  the  virtual  "secession"  of  Italy 
from  the  Triple  Alliance.  Hence  the  necessity 
for  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  to  revise  their 
diplomatic  and  military  plans  for  the  conquest  and 
partition  of  the  East. 

Third,  Russia  was  growing  stronger  every  year 
and  would  be  in  1917,  according  to  calculations  of 
our  war  leaders,  able  at  least  to  defend  herself 
against  the  united  aggression  of  the  Central  Powers. 


AUSTRO-GER^IAN  INTRIGUE  185 

Up  to  1915,  at  the  latest,  she  was  powerless,  as  we 
thought,  against  our  invasion. 

Fourth,  the  internal  political  chaos  and  economic 
depression  of  Austria-Hungary  if  allowed  to  mature 
would  have  dissolved  or  weakened  the  empire  so 
irremedially  that  an  active  external  policy,  to  say 
nothing  of  a  great  war,  would  have  been  unthink- 
able. 

Fifth,  in  1917  the  Ausgleich  between  Austria 
and  Hungary,  regulating  the  economic  relations 
between  the  countries  had  to  be  renewed  or  the 
disruption  of  the  old  empire  would  have  become  an 
accomplished  fact. 

Sixth,  in  1917  the  commercial  treaty  of  Germany 
with  Russia,  which  she  had  concluded  in  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War,  and  which  practically  made  Russia 
a  German  province,  expired. 

All  of  these  circumstances  are  significant  in 
explaining  the  feverish  anxiety  of  the  war  parties 
in  the  Teutonic  Empires  to  precipitate  the  Euro- 
pean crisis  before  the  balance  in  international 
affairs  became  unfavourable  to  them. 

Our  disappointment  at  the  refusal  of  Italy  to 
join  us  in  the  attack  on  Serbia  lasted  only  so  long 
as  it  took  us  to  rearrange  our  plans  according  to 
the  changed  circumstances.  Italy  or  no  Italy,  war 
liad  to  be  brought  about.  We  were  prepared  to 
the  last  button;  Russia  was  not.  Our  general 
staff  grumbled;  it  had  already  perfected  its  plans, 
and  was  unwilling  to  wait.     Count  Berchtold  had 


186  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

failed  to  provide  a  plausible  cause  or  pretext  for  war. 
A  new  orientation  of  our  whole  policy  became  im- 
perative, in  view  of  the  changed  conditions  in  the 
{5alkans  and  within  the  Triple  Alliance.  The  two 
ringleaders  of  the  war  groups,  Kaiser  Wilhelm  and 
Francis  Ferdinand,  decided  to  meet  to  consider  the 
main  points  of  the  future  policy.  The  meeting  was 
set  for  October,  1913. 

In  the  meantime,  we  hastened,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
consolidate  our  position  in  the  Balkans;  and,  on  the 
other,  to  obliterate  traces  of  our  criminal  designs. 
First,  we  gave  Bulgaria  a  loan  of  thirty  million 
francs.  We  were  without  money  ourselves;  the 
year  previous  we  had  gone  to  America  to  get  money 
for  our  mobilization  in  the  Prochaska  crisis,  but 
Count  Berchtold  himself  now  ordered  the  directors 
of  all  our  banks  to  scrape  together  the  money. 

The  conference  of  the  Kaiser  and  the  Archduke 
took  place  at  the  castle  of  Konopisht  on  October 
27,  1913,  after  which  they  proceeded  to  Vienna  to 
lay  their  plans  before  the  old  emperor.  Quite 
ingeniously  our  Foreign  Office  commented  on  the 
meeting  at  Schoenbrunn  in  the  following  manner: 
"Emperor  William  comes  to  Vienna  just  at  the 
right  time,  because  the  adherents  of  the  Alliance 
need  more  than  ever  before  to  see  the  two  monarchs 
— as  the  personification  of  the  treaty — side  by 
side."  Before  the  meeting  of  the  kaisers  was 
adjourned,  it  was  decided  to  hold  one  more  meeting 
before    the    European    conflagration    broke    out. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  187 

This  meeting  was  fixed  for  the  spring  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  1914. 

The  fruits  of  the  meeting  at  Konopisht  were  soon 
visible.  Before  the  meeting  of  the  two  kaisers. 
King  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  had  arrived  at  his 
castle  in  Murany  in  Hungary,  and  soon  afterward 
transferred  his  residence  to  Ebenthal,  near  Vienna. 
When  Kaiser  Wilhelm  left,  the  King  met  Count 
Berchtold,  by  whom  he  was  very  heartily  re- 
ceived. At  this  first  meeting  after  the  Bulgarian 
catastrophe.  King  Ferdinand  received  from  Count 
Berchtold  once  more  the  promise  that  Austrian 
diplomacy  would  not  rest  until  it  had  brought 
about  a  revision  of  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest.  It 
was  thought  by  some  persons  that  the  King  was 
still  wavering  between  the  Triple  Alliance  and  the 
Triple  Entente,  but  such  was  not  the  case.  Bul- 
garia had  already  received  from  Austria,  as  we  have 
seen  above,  the  first  instalment  of  a  loan  and  had 
placed  an  order  with  the  Austrian  Waffen-Fabriks- 
Aktien-Gesellschaft  for  the  completion  of  her 
armaments.  King  Ferdinand  was  at  that  time  in 
the  camp  of  the  war-plotters  of  the  Central  Em- 
pires. 

Although  the  King  was  advised  to  hasten  back 
fo  Sophia,  where  great  bitterness  prevailed  against 
liini,  he  lingered  in  Vienna  long  enough  to  be 
received  in  audience  by  the  Emperor  twice. 
These  audiences  were  more  than  an  indication 
how  painfully  and  prcssingly  the  Central  Empires 


188  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

needed  Bulgarian  friendship,  because  it  was  just  at 
that  time  that  the  pubhc  in  Austria-Hungary  was 
aroused  by  the  pubKcation  in  Paris  of  the  text  of 
the  Serbo-Bulgarian  Treaty  of  1912.  That  treaty 
provided  for  an  offensive  and  defensive  aUiance 
and  was  a  surprise  to  the  people  of  Austria- 
Hungary,  because  it  contained  the  clause  that 
Bulgaria  was  to  come  to  the  help  of  Serbia  with 
£00,000  troops  if  the  latter  should  be  attacked  by 
Austria-Hungary.  The  complete  adherence  of 
King  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria  to  the  policy  outlined 
in  the  first  meeting  at  Konopisht  was  the  last  link 
in  the  formation  of  the  great  conspiracy  of  the 
Germanic  princes  against  the  peace  of  Europe. 
This  conspiracy  comprised,  besides  the  two  rulers 
of  the  Central  Empires  and  the  kings  of  the 
German  Empire,  King  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria, 
King  Carol  of  Rumania,  King  Constantine  of 
Greece,  and  Count  Tisza,  the  uncrowned  king  of 
Hungary.  That  Rumania's  immediate  entry  into 
war  on  the  side  of  the  Central  Empires  was  not 
effected  in  the  first  days  after  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  was  not  due  to  any  reluctance  on  the  part  of 
King  Carol,  but  to  the  almost  unanimous  opposition 
to  such  action  among  his  responsible  statesmen. 

In  order  to  encircle  Russia  completely  with  hos- 
tile powers  the  unconditional  adherence  of  Turkey 
to  the  Austro-German  war  programme  was  neces- 
sary. For  this  purpose  a  new  cowp  d'etat  was 
carried  out  which  practically  placed  Turkey  com- 


AUSTRO-GERIVIAN  INTRIGUE  189 

pletely  in  the  power  of  the  Central  Empires.  On 
the  very  day  on  which  in  Bulgaria  the  pro-German 
Iladoslavoff  was  once  more  entrusted  with  the 
formation  of  a  ministry,  Enver  Bey,  the  tool  of 
Germany,  was  appointed  Minister  of  War,  and 
made  a  pasha.  These  changes  took  place  on  the 
4th  of  January,  1914.  Thus  Turkey  came  into 
the  circle  of  the  conspirators,  and  Enver  Pasha 
played  the  role  of  a  German  prince  in  Turkey  thus 
completing  the  war  alliance  of  Germanic  princes 
formed  to  destroy  Serbia  and  overwhelm  Russia. 
With  Enver  Pasha  there  also  came  into  power 
Talaat  Bey. 

The  necessary  arrangements  having  })ecn  com- 
})letcd,  it  was  decided  to  postpone  everything  to  the 
spring  of  the  following  year  in  order  to  avoid  a  late 
winter  campaign.  Before  starting  a  new  campaign 
of  incitement  for  war  and  of  fabricating  a  casus 
belli,  our  diplomats  felt  it  absolutely  necessary  to 
put  themselves  before  Europe  anfl  the  whole  world 
in  a  proper  light.  Europe  had  become  tired  of  the 
constant  machinations  of  our  diplomats  and  states- 
men against  the  peace  of  the  world.  The  affair 
of  August  9,  1913,  when  Count  Berchtold  asked 
San  Giuliano  to  start  the  World  War  by  attacking 
Serbia,  was  then  known  to  the  diplomats  of  Vienna 
only.  Berlin  and  Rome  were  anxious  to  impress 
upon  the  world  how  peace-loving  they  were. 
Emperor  Francis  Joseph  himself  in  his  speech  from 
the  throne  on  November  19th  said  that  the  Austro- 


190  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Hungarian  Government  "throughout  that  troubled 
period  aimed  at  the  protection  of  the  pohtical  and 
economic  interests  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  and  the 
consolidation  so  far  as  possible  of  the  situation  in 
the  Near  East.  Thanks  to  the  proved  readiness 
of  the  army  and  navy  it  has  been  found  possible 
to  attain  these  ends  by  peaceful  means." 

Count  Berchtold  spoke  openly  of  the  "existence, 
during  the  last  crisis,  of  sentiments  hostile  to  the 
monarchy  not  only  among  certain  Balkan  states, 
but  also  among  the  Great  Powers."  Count  An- 
drassy  and  Count  Karolyi,  on  the  other  hand,  con- 
sidered that  "grave  mistakes  have  been  made  by 
Count  Berchtold  in  maintaining  the  principle  of  the 
status  quo,  in  demanding  a  revision  of  the  Treaty  of 
Bucharest,  and  in  the  attitude  adopted  shortly 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  second  Balkan  War, 
which  could  not  fail  to  produce  an  impression  that 
Austria-Hungary  wished  to  provoke  hostilities. 
Austria-Hungary  did  not  allow  the  Balkan  situation 
to  become  crystallized.  Austria-Hungary  has  often 
put  difficulties  in  Serbia's  way,  and  she  seems  in- 
clined to  continue  to  accentuate  this  policy." 

That  the  World  War  did  not  break  out,  in 
August,  1913,  instead  of  August,  1914,  was  due,  in 
the  first  place,  to  Russia's  conciliatory  attitude; 
secondly,  to  the  wise  policy  of  Great  Britain  as 
conducted  by  Sir  Edward  Grey;  and,  finally,  to  the 
Italian  statesmen  who — although  going  very  far 
in  their  complaisance  with  the  policy  pursued  by 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  191 

the  Ballplatz — nevertheless  became  alarmed  at 
the  eleventh  hour  at  the  prospect  of  a  world  con- 
flagration, and  declined  to  follow  Austria's  lead. 

A  new  issue  with  Serbia  arose  from  the  attempt 
of  the  Serbian  Government  to  purchase  the  shares 
of  the  Orient  railroad  line.  The  possession  of 
the  majority  of  the  Orient  railway  shares  by  a 
syndicate  of  Austro-Hungarian  and  German  banks 
gave  the  monarchy  a  strong  voice  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  question — ^made  it,  in  fact,  an  Austro- 
Hungarian,  if  not  an  Austro-German,  question. 
This  purchase  in  the  spring  of  1913  of  a  requisite 
number  of  shares  to  bring  the  majority  into 
Austrian  and  Hungarian  hands  was  effected  at  the 
instance  of  the  Vienna  Foreign  Office.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  transaction  was — ^first,  to  keep  the 
"road  to  Salonica"  open;  and  secondly,  to  enable 
Austria-Hungary  to  control,  through  the  medium 
of  the  company,  the  development  of  the  railway 
systems  in  the  western  Balkans.  The  value  which 
was  set  upon  the  possession  of  this  control  as  the 
means  of  attaining  the  former  object  was  em- 
phasized by  Count  Berchtold  In  the  Austrian 
delegations. 

A  still  more  vivid  light  was  thrown  upon  the 
intentions  of  our  diplomacy  by  the  special  solicitude 
which  Count  Tisza  displayed  in  the  Rumanian 
national  question,  and  by  the  attitude  of  both  the 
Austrian  and  Hungarian  governments  toward  the 
Ruthenian  population  of  northern  Hungary  and 


192  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

eastern  Gallcia.  As  regards  the  first,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  there  are  Hving  In  the  eastern 
part  of  Hungary,  in  Transylvania,  some  three 
miUion  Rumanians,  racial  kinsmen  of  the  people 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Rumania.  It  was  considered 
as  imperative  by  our  diplomats,  and  foremost 
by  Count  Czernin,  our  Minister  at  Bucharest,  to 
satisfy  to  some  degree  the  national  aspirations  of 
the  Transylvanian  Rumanians  in  view  of  the  ex- 
pected world  war,  as  the  discontent  in  that 
part  of  the  country  was  intense.  The  most 
implacable  enemy  that  the  Slavs  and  Rumanians 
of  Hungary  ever  knew,  namely  Count  Tisza  him- 
self, was  negotiating  with  the  Hungarian  Ru- 
manians to  bring  them  into  the  government  fold 
in  return  for  various  concessions.  Count  Czernin 
said  in  a  conversation  with  a  press  representative 
that  an  understanding  with  the  Hungarian  Ru- 
manians would  effect  an  improvement  in  the  rela- 
tions between  the  monarchy  and  Rumania.  Tisza, 
however,  denied  absolutely  that  there  was  any  con- 
nection between  the  negotiations  with  the  Ruman- 
ians and  the  relations  between  the  monarchy  and  the 
Rumanian  Kingdom.  Finally  Tisza's  negotiations 
with  the  Rumanian  leaders  definitely  failed.  In  a 
long  memorandum  communicated  to  the  Hungarian 
Premier  the  Rumanians  stated  that  his  proposals 
were  not  such  as  to  remove,  even  for  a  short  time, 
the  differences  which  existed  between  the  policy  of 
the  Hungarian  Government  and  themselves. 


AUS'IRO-GERINIAN  INTRIGUE  193 

As  regards  the  second  question,  namely  the 
treatment  of  the  Ruthenes  in  northern  Hungary 
and  GaUcia,  neither  the  Hungarian  nor  the  Aus- 
trian government  acted  in  a  way  to  reconcile  them 
with  their  lot.  In  this  connection,  two  monster 
trials  were  instituted:  one  at  Marmaros-Sziget  in 
Hungary,  and  the  other  in  Lwow,  Galicia.  To 
understand  these  new  machinations  of  the  Ball- 
platz  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  among  the  races 
which  composed  the  population  of  the  Hungarian 
crown  there  were  about  a  half  million  Ruthenes. 
They  were  settled  along  the  northeastern  fringe 
of  the  country  on  the  southern  slopes  of  the  Car- 
pathians. On  the  other  side  of  the  mountains 
three  million  of  their  brethren  lived  under  Aus- 
trian rule  in  Galicia,  and  some  twenty-five  million 
were  subjects  of  Russia.  The  Ruthenes  in  Aus- 
tria-Hungary are  for  the  most  part  peasant  folk,  be- 
longing to  the  Greek  Catholic  or  Uniate  Church, 
which  preserves  the  Orthodox  rite  but  acknowl- 
edges the  Pope.  During  recent  years  there  has 
been,  however,  a  tendency  in  some  districts  to 
leave  this  church  for  the  Greek  Orthodox  religion 
to  which  the  mass  of  Ruthenes  in  Russia  belong. 
In  this  movement  the  Hiuigarian  Government  pro- 
fessed to  see  a  definite  agitation  with  a  political 
purpose — namely,  the  ultimate  absorption  into  the 
Russian  Empire  of  the  Rntlicnian  districts  of  Hun- 
gary. 

The  Marmaros-Sziget  treason  trial,  which  lasted 


194  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

for  months,  was  conceived  on  a  large  scale  (just  as 
was  the  Zagreb  trial  in  1908-09).  When  the  pro- 
ceedings began,  the  accused  numbered  189  persons, 
but  there  remained  on  the  day  of  the  opening  of  the 
trial  only  84,  the  rest  having  been  discharged. 
Chief  among  them  was  one  Alexi  Kabalyuk,  other- 
wise known  as  Father  Alexi,  who  together  with 
24  of  his  companions  was  charged  with  having 
cooperated  with  three  brothers  by  the  name  of 
Gerovsky  of  Czernovitz,  in  Bukovina,  to  convert 
the  Ruthenian  Uniate  population  of  Hungary  to  the 
Russian  Church,  and  to  unite  the  parishes  under 
the  Metropolitan  of  KiefiF;  this  they  strove  to  do  by 
the  distribution  of  pamphlets  in  which  the  Russian 
Church  and  the  Russian  national  idea  were  gloriiSed, 
and  the  Hungarian  nation  and  the  Greek  Uniate 
Church  decried.  Prayers  were  said  for  the  Czar, 
the  Russian  Emperor's  family  and  army.  Further- 
more, it  was  charged  that  they  carried  on  agita- 
tion against  the  Hungarian  state,  having  as  its 
purpose  the  absorption  into  the  Russian  Empire  of 
the  Ruthenian  districts  of  Hungary. 

The  truth  was  that  under  Polish  influences  new 
customs  and  ceremonies,  abhorred  by  the  people, 
were  introduced  into  the  Uniate  Church  by  their 
Metropolitan,  Count  Andrew  Shepticky.  As  a 
result,  thousands  were  leaving  it,  and  were  going 
back  to  the  Orthodox  Church.  Uniate  priests 
who  remained  faithful  to  the  ancient  Slavonic 
Liturgy,  so  loved  by  the  people,  were  harshly 


I 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  195 

persecuted,  while  Orthodox  priests,  although  native 
GaHcians,  were  imprisoned.  The  action  of  the 
Uniate  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  not  any  propa- 
ganda from  the  neighbouring  Russian  Empire,  was 
the  cause  of  the  Orthodox  movement. 

On  March  3,  1914,  the  state  trial  at  Marmaros- 
Sziget  closed.  Thirty-two  of  the  accused  were 
found  guilty  of  incitement  against  religion  and  the 
State,  and  23  not  guilty,  the  heaviest  sentence,  four 
and  one  half  years,  was  passed  on  Kabalyuk;  on  the 
others  from  six  months  to  two  and  one  half  years. 

This  trial  had  scarcely  ended  before  a  similar  one 
began  at  Lvow.  In  this  case  the  charge  of  treason 
and  Russophile  agitation  in  favour  of  the  Orthodox 
Church  was  levelled  against  Austrian  subjects,  the 
chief  of  whom  were  two  priests,  a  writer,  and  a 
university  student.  The  preliminary  examination 
lasted  nearly  two  years,  the  accusation  covered 
190  closely  printed  pages,  and  over  100  witnesses 
were  called.  This  trial  of  four  Ruthenes  on  a 
charge  of  treason  began  at  Lvow  on  March  9, 
1914.  It  differed  in  one  respect  only  from  the 
trial  held  at  Marmaros-Szigct,  the  accused  were 
not  ignorant,  but  educated  persons.  They  had 
been  in  prison  nearly  two  years  before  the  trial 
began.  They  were  charged  with  fomenting  agi- 
tation from  1909  to  1912  in  favour  of  the  incorpora- 
tion of  Galicia  into  Russia,  and  of  having  spoken 
contemptuously  in  public  of  the  Catholic  religion. 
The  proceedings  were  watched  by  two  officers  of 


196  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

the  Austrian  general  staff,  because  three  of  the  ac- 
cused were  charged  with  espionage  in  the  interest 
of  Russia. 

During  both  trials  a  constant  agitation  was  kept 
up  in  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  press  against  Rus- 
sia. The  papers  constantly  referred  to  the '  'sinister' ' 
influence  of  Russia.  In  Austria-Hungary  they 
spoke  of  the  "rolling  rouble"  that  finds  its  way  into 
the  pockets  of  Austro-Hungarian  citizens  for  the 
purpose  of  agitation,  etc.  While  this  new  move- 
ment against  Russia  was  raging  in  Austria-Hungary,' 
it  was  thought  necessary,  by  the  German  Foreign 
Office,  to  open  an  anti-Russian  agitation  simulta- 
neously in  Germany,  and  what  was  said  there  in  the 
very  days  when  the  political  trials  in  Austria- 
Hungary  were  coming  to  a  close  was  little  short  of 
an  unofficial  declaration  of  war  against  Russia. 
The  campaign  was  opened  by  the  Kolnische  Zeitung 
on  the  eve  of  the  day  on  which  the  verdict  in  the 
Marmaros-Sziget  trial  was  expected.  On  March 
2d  the  same  paper  published  an  article  by  its 
Petrograd  correspondent  in  which  he  dealt  with  the 
relations  of  Russia  to  Germany  by  declaring  that 
"Holy  Russia  is  not  in  a  position  to  give  backing 
by  the  force  of  arms  to  her  political  threats." 

But  the  campaign  did  not  stop  there.  It  in- 
volved the  whole  press  of  Germany.  The  Berliner 
TagehlaU  outdid  the  Kolnische  Zeitung  in  an  arti- 
cle about  the  relations  of  Austria-Hungary  and 
Germany  to  Russia,  which  it  published  on  March 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  197 

9,  1914.  "A  preventive  war,"  it  said,  "is  in  gen- 
eral to  be  condemned,  but  there  are  cases  where 
a  state  is  driven  more  and  more  into  straits  by  an 
overwhelming  adversary,  and  to  save  itself  cannot 
allow  the  enemy  the  choice  of  the  most  propitious 
moment. 

"It  is  impossible  to  let  Russia  go  a  step  farther, 
and  even  then  if  it  comes  to  war  with  her.  .  .  . 
Germany  and  especially  Austria-Hungary  are 
suffering  heavily  under  the  strain  of  their  present 
armaments.  They  are  better  than  ever  prepared 
for  war.  With  time,  however,  the  chances  are 
growing  better  for  Russia.  .  .  .  The  burden 
of  the  war  in  the  eastern  theatre  of  war  will  fall 
principally  upon  Austria-Hungary.  From  all  we 
hear  the  Austro-IIungarian  army  is  now  well 
organized  and  equipped  with  all  possible  weapons. 
Russia  is  by  no  means  invincible,  and  it  is  wrong  to 
think  that  a  victory  over  Russia  would  bring  no 
fruit.  On  the  contrary,  Russia  is  the  colossus  with 
feet  of  clay.  Her  existence  depends  for  the  greater 
part  on  the  need  of  peace  or  rather  the  good  will  of 
the  inhabitants  of  central  Europe." 

Chauvinists  and  militaristic  writers  enjoyed 
the  utmost  freedom.  General  Bernhardi  explained 
in  the  Post  that  "Germany  must  be  prepared  for 
war  in  the  near  future,"  and  attempted  to  show 
that  "the  recent  French  and  Russian  anny  meas- 
ures have  creatcfl  a  new  situation  not  foreseen  in 
1913."     The  Pan-German  press  advocated  German 


198  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

claims  of  all  sorts,  especially  in  Asia  Minor,  "which 
is  still  to  be  had  but  only  if  Germany  does  not 
shrink  from  the  extreme  test,  that  is  really  to  risk 
war  against  Russia  and  France  as  well  as  England." 
There  were  then  in  the  field  the  gun-makers,  the 
ammunition  manufacturers,  the  army  and  navy, 
the  clericals,  the  Pan-Germans,  and  the  Semitic 
business  interests.  There  was  little  more  to  be 
desired,  unless  it  were  the  adhesion  of  the  Socialists 
who  hated  Russia  and  all  her  works.  As  the 
Socialists  had  already  placed  themselves  on  record 
in  the  crisis  of  1912  as  favouring  war  against  Russia 
and  Serbia,  their  support  was  certain,  and  their 
attitude  well  known  to  the  Government. 

Alarmed  by  so  much  noise  about  an  immediate 
outbreak  of  war,  the  Hungarian  paper,  Az  Est, 
sent  one  of  its  best  correspondents  to  Petrograd 
to  interview  Sazonoff,  the  Russian  Foreign  Min- 
ister. Sazonoff's  measured  words  are  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  provocations  against  Russia  con- 
tained in  the  Austro-German  official  press.  He 
stated  that  he  was  "unable  to  understand  the  sud- 
den outburst  of  excitement  in  Austria-Hungary 
and  Germany."  "Last  year,"  he  said,  "tension 
between  the  monarchy  and  Russia  certainly  did 
exist,  but  that  is  a  matter  of  the  past."  In  regard 
to  a  certain  tension  or  jealousy  existing  between 
Germandom  and  Slavdom,  Sazonoff  said  that 
"the  policy  of  great  empires  in  this  twentieth 
century  is  not  conducted  according  to  sentiments. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  199 

The  interests  are  the  decisive  factors  in  this  realistic 
world.  A  war  as  you  picture  it  yourself  would  in 
our  day  be  a  world  war.  The  interests  of  the 
world,  though,  demand  at  all  costs  peace.  The 
Treaty  of  Commerce  between  Russia  and  Germany 
must  be  renewed  in  1917.  But  I  see  also  in  this 
field  not  a  point  which  could  lead  to  dispute.  We 
are  principally  an  agricultural  state  and  Germany 
is  our  greatest  market.  It  will  not  be  difficult  to 
come  to  terms  under  such  circumstances.  In  criti- 
cizing Russian  armaments,  the  Austro-IIungarian 
press  is  apt  to  forget  the  very  great  increases 
which  the  monarchy  has  effected  in  the  strength  of 
her  army  by  the  reform  of  1912  and  by  the  bill 
presented  last  year  and  already  passed  by  the 
Austro-IIungarian  parliaments.  Also  do  not  for- 
get that  our  annual  birth  rate  is  three  and  a  half 
millions.  Consequently,  we  can  allow  ourselves 
an  increase  in  the  peace  footing  of  our  army.  This 
is  a  luxury  which  ceases  to  be  a  luxury  as  soon  as 
foreign  armaments  force  us  to  similar  measures.** 
No  plainer  and  no  more  reasonable  words  could 
have  been  spoken  by  a  statesman  of  a  threatened 
country  than  these  of  Sazonoff.  To  bring  them 
into  relief  it  is  necessary  to  contrast  them  with  the 
speech  of  the  Austrian  Defence  Minister  which  he 
delivered  the  day  after  the  Sazonoff  interview. 
In  introducing  on  March  13,  1914,  the  Recruit 
Contingent  Bill,  General  Baron  Georgi  said:  "It 
was  generally  hoped  that  it  was  permissible  to 


200  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OP 

look  forward  to  a  long  period  of  peace.  The  mon- 
archy had  during  the  Balkan  crisis  shown  her  love 
of  peace  and  her  disinclination  to  attack  another 
state.  Conditions  in  the  Near  East,  however,  were 
not  yet  sufficiently  ordered  to  exclude  the  possi- 
bility that  the  monarchy  might  find  herself 
suddenly,  and  even  against  her  will,  involved  in 
war.  Austria-Hungary's  love  of  peace  must  not  be 
regarded  as  weakness  and  no  doubt  must  be  allowed 
to  exist  that  she  was  absolutely  ready  and  decided 
to  reply,  if  necessary,  to  any  attack  with  a  counter- 
attack." This  statement  is  of  significance,  as  it 
was  made  a  few  days  before  a  further  visit  of  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  to  Austria. 

While  Kaiser  Wilhelm  deliberated  with  Kaiser 
Francis  Joseph  and  Count  Berchtold  as  to  when  and 
how  best  to  precipitate  the  war,  the  German 
Kaiser  again  reminded  the  Viennese  of  his  famous 
"shining-armour"  speech,  by  presenting  to  the 
City  of  Vienna  a  large  plaque  commemorating  his 
reception  seven  years  before  at  the  Vienna  City 
Hall. 

Commenting  upon  Kaiser  Wilhelm's  visit.  Count 
Tisza  in  his  Weekly  Igazmondo  on  March  23, 
1914,  said:  "To-day  sixty-five  million  Germans 
are  opposed  to  only  thirty-eight  million  French, 
and  according  to  human  foresight,  Germany  will 
more  and  more  overtake  her  old  foe  in  the  future 
as  regards  population  and  military  strength.  What 
follows    from    this?    To-day    three  fifths  of    the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  201 

population  of  Germany  suffices  to  counterbalance 
France.  Approximately  two  fifths  of  the  German 
military  strength  is  available  to  be  thrown  in  the 
scales  in  case  of  a  great  world  war  in  the  east  of 
Europe  ...  in  this  war  we  can  count  on 
nearly  half  of  the  German  army. " 

Count  Tisza  was  severely  attacked  for  this  article 
by  Count  Karolyi  in  the  Hungarian  Delegations  on 
May  12,  1914.  He  pointed  out  the  profound 
impression  which  Tisza's  statements  had  made  in 
the  Dual  Monarchy;  and,  in  fact,  in  all  Europe. 
"I  do  not  want,"  he  said,  "to  make  the  Premier 
responsible  for  the  attacks  on  Russia.  It  is  never- 
theless without  doubt  that  the  Premier  has  great 
influence  on  a  certain  part  of  the  press.  I  am 
speaking  now  of  his  own  article  in  which,  so  to  say, 
he  mobilized  the  German  troops  on  the  Russian  and 
French  frontiers.  It  is  certainly  an  offence  to  a 
state  if  the  premier  of  another  state  calculates  in 
an  article  how  many  soldiers  would  suffice  to  over- 
throw the  state  in  question,  in  this  case  Russia,  and 
how  to  hold  France  in  check.  Nobody  can  call 
this  tenderness.  If  the  premier  of  a  country  writes 
such  an  article,  it  carries  greater  weight  than  if 
somebody  else  does  it." 

By  the  prei)arations  wliich  were  going  on  at  the 
same  time  in  the  Austro-IIungarian  embassies 
abroad,  I  know  that  the  meeting  of  the  two  kaisers 
was  of  the  utmost  significance;  that  the  date  for 
the  beginning  of  the  war  was  set  for  the  summer  of 


202  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

1914;  that  the  old  emperor  had  been  completely 
won  over  at  that  meeting  to  the  views  of  the 
German  Kaiser.  Encouraged  by  his  success 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  then  proceeded  to  Trieste  where 
on  March  27th  he  had  a  meeting  with  his  other 
archplotter,  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand,  at  the 
castle  of  Miramar.  Confirmation  of  my  views  in 
regard  to  the  conclusions  that  were  reached  at  the 
meeting  of  the  two  kaisers  (it  must  be  noted 
that  the  greater  part  of  my  manuscript  was  written 
during  the  European  war)  was  given  by  Mr.  Mor- 
genthau,  ex-Ambassador  of  the  United  States  to 
Turkey,  in  his  book,  "Ambassador  Morgen- 
thau's  Story"  where  he  said:  "The  Austro-Hun- 
garian  Ambassador  to  Turkey,  Marquis  Pal- 
lavicini,  also  practically  admitted  that  the  Central 
Powers  had  precipitated  the  war.  On  August 
18,  1914,  Francis  Joseph's  name  day,  I  made  the 
usual  ambassadorial  visit  of  congratulation.  Quite 
naturally  the  conversation  turned  upon  the  em- 
peror, who  had  that  day  passed  his  84th  year. 
Pallavicini  spoke  about  him  with  the  utmost  pride 
and  veneration.  He  told  me  how  keen-minded 
and  clear-headed  the  aged  emperor  was,  how  he 
had  the  most  complete  understanding  of  interna- 
tional affairs,  and  gave  everything  his  personal 
supervision.  To  illustrate  the  Austrian  Kaiser's 
grasp  of  public  events,  Pallavicini  instanced  the 
present  war.  The  previous  May,  Pallavicini  had 
had  an  audience  with  Francis  Joseph  in  Vienna. 


AUSTRO-GERI^IAN  INTRIGUE  203 

At  that  time,  Pallavicini  told  me,  the  Emperor 
had  said  that  the  European  war  was  unavoidable. 
The  Central  Powers  would  not  accept  the  Treaty 
of  Bucharest  as  a  settlement  of  the  Balkan  question, 
and  only  a  general  war,  the  Emperor  told  Pallavi- 
cini, could  ever  settle  that  problem."  Knowing, 
as  I  do,  Marquis  Pallavicini — I  served  under  him 
while  he  was  Minister  in  Bucharest — I  can  fully 
understand  that  he  was  capable  of  making  such 
an  important  revelation  to  one  of  his  foreign  col- 
leagues, as  he  himself  is  neither  keen-minded  nor 
clear-headed,  and  is  of  a  talkative  disposition. 

But  what  Marquis  Pallavicini  forgot  to  mention 
was  the  fact  that  he  himself  had  made  at  that  time 
a  stay  of  three  days  at  Bucharest  during  which  he 
sounded  various  political  personages  on  the  ques- 
tion of  whether  Rumania  would  follow  Austria- 
Hungary  and  Germany  in  the  e^'ent  of  the  former 
declaring  war,  the  Marquis  affirming  that  Austria- 
Hungary  would  be  obliged  to  proceed  to  this  ex- 
tremity and  that  the  replies  given  were  in  the  nega- 
tive. 


CHAPTER  X 

Austria  Selects  Albania  as  "the  Cradle  for 
THE  World  War 

the   recruiting   of  volunteers   for  war  in 

albania,  june,  1914  ! 

1 

WITH  or  without  the  assassination  of  the  | 
Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  and  with  or 
without  the  so-called  previous  mobiliza- 
tion of  the  Russian  army  on  August  the  first,  1914, 
war  was  decided  by  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany 
in  March,  1914,  for  that  very  year  or  at  the  latest 
the  following  year;  and  nothing  could  have  stopped 
the  two  war  parties  from  carrying  this  decision  into 
effect. 

This  explains  why  we  were  again  on  the  lookout 
for  a  pretext  for  war.  As  the  machinations  against 
Russia  in  the  two  Ruthenian  trials  had  fallen  flat,  the 
Serbian  wound  was  again  opened  over  the  matter  of 
the  control  of  the  Orient  Railway  in  Serbia.  This 
controversy  was  in  an  acute  stage  at  the  time  Baron 
Conrad  von  Hoetzendorf,  Chief  of  the  General  Staff, 
was  conferring  with  Count  Von  Moltke,  Chief  of  the 
Prussian  General  Staff,  on  matters  of  the  utmost 
importance,  in  the  watering  place  of  Karlsbad. 

204 


AUSTRO-GERIMAN  INTRIGUE  205 

But  soon  an  even  better  opportunity  for  our 
diplomats  to  make  trouble  in  the  Balkans  arose 
once  more  in  Albania,  and  the  situation  there 
shaped  itself  so  favourably  for  fomenting  trouble 
that  both  the  Ballplatz  and  our  General  Staff  were 
absolutely  certain  that  in  Albania  the  spark 
would  be  dropped  which  wouhl  (^xj)lodc  the  powder 
magazine  of  Europe. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  first  shot  in  the  World 
War  was  not  fired  by  the  boy  assassin  of  Sara- 
jevo, but  by  an  Austrian  officer  at  Durazzo,  the 
capital  of  the  new  Kingdom  of  Albania. 

Before  describing  that  scene  it  must  be  recalled 
that  the  Kingdom  of  Albania  was  created  bj"^  the 
Conference  of  Ambassadors  in  London  at  the  end 
of  the  First  Balkan  W^ar.  It  lacked  a  prince,  but 
one  was  soon  found  in  a  close  relative  of  the  Queen 
of  Rumania;  hence  the  particular  interest  which 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  and  King  Carol  of  Rumania,  both 
Hohenzollerns,  displayed  in  the  Prince  of  Wied. 
In  the  past  German  princesses  have  overflowed 
the  dynastic  marriage  market  of  Europe;  a  Rus- 
sian grand  duke  once  called  these  German  prin- 
cesses less  gallantly  than  cynically  '' marchandise 
d" exportation.^^  This  hon  mot  could  fairly  be  ap- 
plied also  to  German  princes  that  have  become  a 
special  article  of  export  to  the  Balkans,  as  Carol  of 
Rumania,  Ferdinand  of  Bulgaria,  and  the  Prince 
of  Wied.  It  was  at  the  close  of  February,  1013, 
that  Prince  William  of  Wied  received  at  the  an- 


206  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

cestral  castle  of  his  family  at  Neu  Wied  the 
Albanian  deputation  headed  by  Essad  Pasha 
which  offered  him  the  Albanian  throne.  Before 
this  new,  artificially  created  "Emperor"  ventured 
into  his  realm,  he  visited  the  courts  of  Europe 
and  secured  for  himself  from  the  various  Euro- 
pean governments  a  big  yearly  subsidy  in  gold. 
Hardly  was  he  seated,  however,  on  his  throne 
in  the  old  court-house  in  Durazzo,  which  had 
been  hastily  converted  into  some  semblance  of  a 
palace,  than  this  newly  made  throne  began  to 
shake  violently.  Never  did  a  prince  face  such  a 
difficult  situation.  He  had  to  deal  with  a  race 
of  which  the  northern  half  does  not  understand 
the  southern  half,  and  which  is  divided  by  three 
religions:  Catholic  in  the  north,  the  followers  of 
the  Orthodox  Church  in  the  south,  and  the  devo- 
tees of  Islam  scattered  all  over  the  state.  Ex- 
Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  had  disbursed  a  great 
deal  of  money  among  the  Albanian  mussulmans 
of  the  mountains;  while  Austria  and  Italy  had 
vied  with  each  other  in  the  zeal  which  they  dis- 
played in  financing  the  Albanian  chieftains  and 
members  of  the  clergy.  The  Mpret,  the  title  of  the 
new  emperor,  soon  discovered  that  he  was  sitting 
on  a  powder  magazine.  Central  Albania  had  al- 
ways been  convulsed  by  bitter  feuds.  Homes 
there  are  like  great  fortresses  with  loopholes  as 
windows.  Indeed  it  was  a  primitive  society  where 
no  dishonour  was  attached  to  brigandage  and  free- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  207 

booting;  where  fighting  was  honourable  and  agricul- 
ture despised.  In  the  north  and  in  the  south  every- 
thing was  in  flux.  The  spirit  that  our  diplomats 
had  aroused  to  foment  a  great  upheaval  in  the 
Balkans  could  not  be  appeased.  The  rebels  who 
had  been  incited  by  the  Ballplatz  against  Serbia 
and  driven  back  by  the  latter  into  their  own 
country,  revolted  now  against  their  new  ruler 
and  marched  on  his  capital.  In  this  predicament, 
when  the  revolt  was  at  its  height,  and  the  over- 
throw of  the  new  emperor  was  impending,  a  con- 
ference was  convoked  by  Count  Berchtold  at 
Budapest  to  decide  on  the  measures  to  be  taken  in 
Albania  and  also  on  a  general  policy  for  the  Balkans. 
In  this  conference  the  Italian  Ambassador  partici- 
pated, as  did  also  Herr  Von  Tschirschky,  German 
Ambassador  and  confidant  of  the  Gennan  war 
party  in  Austria.  First  these  men  resolved  on  an 
Albanian  cowp  cVetat  and  Essad  Pasha,  the  all- 
powerful  minister  and  the  real  ruler  of  Albania, 
and  his  wife  were  arrested  and  placed  as  prisoners 
on  an  Austro-Hungarian  cruiser.  This  happened 
on  May  20,  1914,  but  it  was  too  late  to  save 
the  throne  of  the  Mpret.  Three  days  later,  when 
the  insurgents  marched  on  the  capital,  the  Prince, 
his  family,  and  staff,  hurriedly  took  refuge  on  board 
an  Italian  war-ship.  With  this  adventure,  the 
reign  of  William  I  of  Albania  practically  came  to  a 
close.  There  was  much  mutual  recrimination  in 
the  Italian  and  Austrian  press  as  to  who  counselled 


208  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

the  Prince  to  flee.  Count  Forgach,  then  Under- 
Secretary  in  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  said 
that  the  Prince  acted  on  the  advice  of  the  Itahan 
Minister.  However,  the  Prince  returned  to  his 
palace  when  the  insurgents  were  held  up  at  the 
gates  of  his  capital  by  his  "army"  headed  by  a 
party  of  enterprising  Austro-Hungarian  officers, 
who  turned  upon  the  insurgents  the  guns  they  had 
brought  with  them  from  the  famous  Skoda  works. 
Count  Forgach  explained  this  occurrence  by  stating 
that  "these  officers  were  present  in  the  town  to  test 
cannon  which  had  come  from  Austria."  "It  was 
natural,"  he  said,  "that  they  could  not  stand  by, 
inactive.  But  their  participation  in  the  affair  was 
due  to  chance  and  not  to  a  pre-arranged  plan." 
The  reader  can  estimate  how  much  credence  can 
be  placed  in  the  words  of  Count  Forgach,  made 
notorious  through  the  forgeries  and  theft  of  docu- 
ments in  the  annexation  crisis,  if  he  realizes  that 
the  Austro-Hungarian  officer  who  fired  the  first 
shot  from  a  Skoda  gun  in  the  Balkans  was  none 
other  than  the  notorious  Lieutenant  Haessler, 
known  for  his  leading  role  at  the  Albanian  Congress 
at  Trieste.  This  was,  in  fact,  the  first  shot  fired 
in  the  World  War.  From  that  moment  on  sporadic 
fighting  continued  in  Albania,  until  Austria  offi- 
cially declared  war  on  Serbia. 

Following  this  exploit  the  Austrian  merchant- 
ship  Herzegovina  was  chartered  by  the  Albanian 
Government  from  a  private  company;  Austrian 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  209 

guns  were  put  aboard  her,  with  Austro-Hungarian 
gunners,  and  she  was  sent  cruising  along  the  coast 
of  Albania.  She  attacked  the  Albanian  insurgents 
who  had  occupied  the  heights  along  the  seacoast. 
Meanwhile,  we  had  dispatched  a  squadron,  in- 
cluding two  dreadnaughts,  to  Albanian  waters  to 
relieve  the  Herzegovinay  while  the  Kaiser  ordered 
the  Gennan  cruiser  GoebeUy  of  World-War  notoriety, 
which  was  at  Dedeagatch,  to  proceed  immediately 
to  Durazzo.  The  flames  of  the  World  War  were 
breaking  out  in  the  Balkans,  and  the  greatest  activ- 
ity was  apparent  in  the  Ballplatz  and  in  the  Minis- 
try of  War  at  Vienna. 

What  the  German  Kaiser  could  not  furnish  con- 
veniently without  disclosing  to  Europe  his  in- 
tentions, namely,  the  soldiers  asked  for  by  his  col- 
league in  Albania,  the  Austrians  were  asked  to 
provide.  It  was  expected  that  such  action  on  the 
part  of  the  Austrians  would  be  interpreted  by 
Europe  simply  as  an  act  of  good  will  with  no  serious 
significance.  Count  Berchtold  promised,  upon 
the  advice  of  Herr  Von  Loewenthal,  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Minister  to  the  Court  of  Albania,  to 
raise  a  volunteer  corps  in  Austria  to  fight  in  Al- 
bania, in  the  hope  that  through  the  fighting  in 
Albania  the  whole  of  the  Balk.ins  would  soon 
flare  up.  Our  Minister  of  War  had  already,  in 
February,  1914,  with  great  foresight,  established 
a  three-months'  course  of  instruction  in  the  Alban- 
ian language  for  officers  in  the  Austro-Hungarian 


210  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

army.  Moreover,  we  had  a  nucleus  of  a  fighting 
force  already  in  Albania,  batteries  of  quick-firing 
guns — a  brand-new  product  from  the  famous 
Skoda  works  at  Pilsen — with  all  the  men  necessary 
to  man  them,  officers  from  our  regular  army,  and 
many  non-commissioned  oflScers  in  the  guise  of 
mechanics,  engineers,  etc. 

While  the  great  mountain  manoeuvres  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  army  in  Bosnia  were  taking 
place  our  General  Staff  was  organizing  a  volunteer 
corps  at  Vienna  for  warfare  in  Albania.  We  would 
have  sent  regular  army  units  to  Albania  had  we 
not  feared  to  disclose  our  real  intentions  too  soon. 
Volunteers,  therefore,  were  considered  as  the  safer 
way  out  of  the  predicament.  This  was  just  at  the 
time  when  the  Constantinople  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  was  about  to  expel  all  Greeks  from 
Asia  Minor  and  from  Turkish  Thrace  as  a  prelude 
to  war  with  Greece  and  the  reconquest  of  Salonica 
and  reoccupation  of  Macedonia.  The  only  hitch 
in  the  plans  of  the  war-maniacs  of  Austria  was 
caused  by  the  outburst  in  the  Italian  press  which 
clearly  showed  that  it  was  distrustful  of  interven- 
tion in  Albania  by  Austria  alone,  and  demanded 
that  if  there  was  to  be  intervention,  it  must  be  by 
Europe  as  a  whole. 

In  spite  of  the  prospects  of  a  brighter  future 
which  were  opened  to  Turkey  by  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  diplomacy,  the  partition  of  Turkey 
between  Austria-Hungary  and   Germany  was  a 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  211 

foregone  conclusion.  Austria-Hungary  was  to  re- 
ceive, besides  the  spoils  in  the  Balkans,  that  part 
of  Asia  Minor  of  which  Alexandretta  is  the  virtual 
centre.  What  agreements  were  reached  with  Italy 
in  regard  to  the  modus  operandi  in  the  Balkans 
for  the  near  future  I  am  unable  to  say.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  future  will  disclose  what  agree- 
ments if  any  were  made  in  this  regard  at  the  con- 
ference of  Kaiser  Wilhelm,  the  King  of  Italy,  and 
his  Foreign  Minister  on  board  the  Ilohenzollern^ 
at  the  end  of  March,  1914.  It  is  certain  that  any 
extension  of  our  sovereignty  over  the  Balkans  had 
to  carry  as  compensation  an  extension  of  Italian 
sovereignty  in  Albania.  It  was  Doctor  Fried jung, 
with  whom  the  reader  is  already  familiar  from  the 
Friedjung  trial  of  1909,  who  pubHshed  in  his  new 
monthly  magazine,  Der  GreiJ,  an  article  entitled  i 
"The  Content  of  the  Triple  Alliance  in  Regard 
to  the  Approaching  Partition  of  Turkey  in  Asia." 
"The  so-called  periodical  renewal  of  the  Triple 
Alliance,"  said  he,  "refers  only  to  the  German  and 
Austrian  agreements  with  Italy,  whereas  the 
Austro-German  agreement  is  renewed  automati- 
cally until  and  unless  one  or  other  of  the  powers 
gives  notice  of  renunciation."  His  second  point 
was  that  since  1887  Austria-Hungary  had  been 
pledged  to  allow  Italy  an  equivalent  expansion 
in  the  Balkans  for  any  Austro-Hungarian  expan- 
sion there.  This  provision  has  been  kept  secret 
out  of  regard  for  good  relations  with  Turkey." 


212  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

These  revelations  Doctor  Friedjung  made  on  the 
strength  of  conversations  he  had  had  with  Count 
Aehrenthal  and  Kiederlen-Waechter.  The  ques- 
tion arises,  therefore,  was  our  diplomacy  willing 
to  let  Italy  participate  in  the  partition  of  the  Bal- 
kans after  the  refusal  of  that  country  to  join  us 
in  a  world  war  in  August,  1913?  The  possession 
by  Italy  of  Valona  would  have  meant  the  bottling 
up  of  the  Adriatic.  So  keen  was  the  desire  of 
Count  Berchtold  to  bring  about  the  revision  of  the 
Treaty  of  Bucharest  that  he  was  willing  to  make 
even  that  sacrifice.  As  late  as  May  11,  1914, 
hardly  six  weeks  before  the  death  of  Francis 
Ferdinand,  Berchtold  was  severely  criticized  in  the 
Hungarian  Delegations  for  this  concession  to  Italy, 
but  he  was  upheld  in  his  policy  by  the  great 
landed  proprietors  of  Austria,  who  stated  through 
their  mouthpiece,  Count  Clam-Martinic,  on  May 
20th,  that  they  were  "willing  to  uphold  Count 
Berchtold  to  the  limit,  even  if  complications  should 
arise  which  would  lead  directly  to  the  World  War." 
Emboldened  by  such  language  we  wanted  to  hold 
the  Prince  of  Wied  on  his  throne  at  all  costs,  in 
order  to  prevent  an  international  commission  from 
getting  hold  of  affairs  in  Albania.  As  we  could 
not  launch  officially  a  call  for  volunteers  the  Gen- 
eral Staff  entrusted  the  recruiting  of  the  volunteers 
to  two  lieutenants  of  the  reserve,  one  of  them  a 
sculptor  by  the  name  of  Gurschner,  and  the  other 
an  architect  by  the  name  of  Leopold  Wirth,  the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  213 

latter  of  whom  had  taken  part  in  the  fighting  at 
Durazzo.  The  appeal  for  volunteers  was  supplied 
to  the  press  through  a  news  agency  which  main- 
tained close  relations  with  official  circles.  In  two 
days  several  thousand  men  had  volunteered,  most 
of  them  reserve  officers,  doctors,  and  students  who 
had  already  seen  military  service.  It  was  stated 
at  the  time  that  the  expenses  of  the  expedition 
would  be  met  out  of  "private  funds."  I  cannot 
say  whether  the  expenses  of  recruiting  and  equip- 
ment were  paid  by  the  War  Ministry  or  out  of  the 
secret  fund  of  two  million  kronen  which  Count 
Berchtold  had  received  for  his  secret  dispositions  on 
November  28, 1913.  Certain  it  is  that  not  a  single 
volunteer  would  have  paid  a  cent  out  of  his  own 
pocket  for  that  adventure. 

The  first  units  left  at  once  for  Durazzo.  The 
account  of  this  hazardous  trick  of  our  diplomacy 
was  most  touchingly  portrayed  in  the  Ballplatz 
organs.  The  recruiting  officer  Wirth  said  on  the 
26th  of  June — that  is  two  days  before  the  death 
of  Francis  Ferdinand — "In  Durazzo  my  Austrian 
patriotism  has  come  to  a  new  life.  There  I  have 
found  again  my  Fatherland.  .  .  .  With  the 
help  of  a  thousand  volunteers  and  more,  the  honour 
of  Europe  and  the  throne  of  the  Prince  can  be 
saved."  A  Viennese  professor  of  international  law 
said  that  "  the  recruiting  and  sending  of  the  expedi- 
tion to  Albania  was  from  the  point  of  international 
law  without  objection." 


214  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

On  the  27th  of  June  this  Austrian  Don  Quixote 
adventure  had  risen  to  such  proportions  that  the 
recruiting  officers  were  swamped  with  dispatches 
from  Austria-Hungary,  and  especially  from  Ger- 
many. A  manufacturer  from  Hanover  offered 
to  join  the  volunteer  corps  with  a  whole  troop 
of  his  men.  High  aristocrats  and  officers  from 
Berlin  and  Jena,  as  well  as  officers  and  non-com- 
missioned officers  from  all  over  Germany,  offered 
their  services.  The  comment  of  the  Neue  Freie 
Presse,  representing  the  Semitic  business  interests 
which  were  especially  hot  for  war  against  Serbia 
and  Russia,  was  as  follows:  "These  volunteers  do 
not  want  to  fight  for  a  country  which  is  so  alien 
to  their  hearts  and  a  nation  for  which  they  can 
have  no  sentiments,  but  they  go  to  fight  for  the 
monarchy.  They  want  to  fight  not  for  the  Prince 
of  Wied,  in  Durazzo,  Albania,  but  for  the  Emperor 
of  Austria  in  Vienna." 

Then  the  paper  went  on  to  say:  "Two  thousand 
men  want  to  go  to  Albania  but  millions  are  sharing 
the  idea  which  is  compelling  the  volunteers  to  go 
to  Durazzo  to  participate  in  the  fighting  on  the 
side  of  the  Prince.  The  popularity  which  the 
proposed  march  of  volunteers  to  Albania  has 
reached  is  proof  of  how  strong  the  desire  is  to 
show  before  the  world  that  Austria  has  much 
more  vitality  than  our  adversaries  are  willing  to 
admit." 

While  this  comedy  was  being  enacted  in  Vienna 


AUSTRO-GER]VIAN  INTRIGUE  215 

by  Counts  Berchtold,  and  Von  Hoetzendorf, 
Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  was  reviewing  for 
the  last  time  his  army  of  manoeuvre  of  100,000 
men  in  Bosnia,  and  was  just  preparing  for  the  tri- 
umphal entry  into  the  Bosnian  capital,  Sarajevo. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Count  Tisza  Constructs  a  "Casus  Belli"  Out 
OF  THE  Archduke's  Murder 

THE     FINAL     CONFERENCE     BETWEEN     THE     ARCH- 
PLOTTERS  OF  THE  WORLD  WAR — ^KAISER  WILHELM, 
ARCHDUKE    FRANCIS    FERDINAND,   AND    GRAND    AD- 
MIRAL VON  TIRPITZ 

BEFORE  reviewing  the  incidents  surround- 
ing the  Archduke's  murder  and  how  this 
act  of  a  half-grown  revolutionist  was  con- 
verted by  the  experienced  hands  of  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  war-plotters  into  a  casus  belli,  I  must 
tell  of  the  last  meeting  which  the  Archduke  had 
with  Kaiser  Wilhelm  at  Castle  Konopisht  in 
Bohemia.  The  reader  will  remember  that  Kaiser 
and  Archduke  agreed  at  their  first  meeting  at 
Castle  Konopisht  in  October,  1913,  to  meet 
in  the  spring  of  1914;  and  that  instead,  the  meet- 
ing had  taken  place  at  the  end  of  March,  1914, 
at  Castle  Miramar,  the  once  favourite  residence 
of  the  unfortunate  Maximilian,  Emperor  of  Mexico. 
The  nearer  we  drew  to  the  outbreak  of  the  World 
War  the  more  frequent  became  the  meetings  of 
these  two  leaders  of  the  Teutonic  war  parties. 

216 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  217 

These  interviews  were  always  held  under  some 
flimsy  disguise:  of  a  hunting  party  for  boars,  deer, 
chamois,  pigeons,  pheasants,  and  so  on.  This 
time  it  was  held  under  the  lovely  cloak  of  a  "review 
of  roses"  which  were  in  the  most  wonderful  bloom 
and  fragrance  in  the  Rosen  Monaty  i.e.,  June — 
the  month  of  roses.  Kaiser  Wilhelm,  it  was  said, 
had  seen  the  castle  of  Konopisht  in  the  fall,  and 
wanted  to  see  it  in  the  full  glory  of  its  roses.  Thus 
surrounded  by  beautiful  roses  these  two  relentless 
spirits  reached  decisions  which  soon  were  to  make 
humanity  bleed  from  a  million  wounds,  and  dye 
with  crimson  the  fields  of  Europe. 

On  June  12,  1914,  the  two  "garden-friends,"  as 
they  were  termed  by  the  press  of  the  Ballplatz, 
met  once  more  in  the  old  historic  castle  situated 
in  the  heart  of  Bohemia,  in  the  midst  of  a  people 
who  watched  with  misgivings  the  hapi>enings 
in  the  castle.  Among  the  men  who  came  with 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  for  this  last  meeting  the  most 
noted  was  Grand  Admiral  Von  Tirpitz.  This 
personage  who  came  into  such  sinister  prominence 
in  the  World  War,  as  the  originator  of  the  U-Boat 
warfare,  excited  even  in  those  days  the  most  fear- 
ful forebodings,  and  the  imagination  of  many  a  man 
in  Austria  saw  behind  the  lovely  flower  beds  and 
the  festive  reception  halls  the  ominous  spectre 
of  war.  Amid  the  fragrance  of  the  flowers  lurked 
the  stench  of  war.  As  if  by  prearrangement  the 
attention  of  the  press  was  centred  upon  the  person 


218  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

of  Grand  Admiral  Von  Tirpitz.  The  organs  of 
Count  Berchtold  designated  him  as  one  of  those 
"iron  skulls  which  could  even  break  through 
walls,"  and  as  "the  indestructible,  far-seeing,  and 
keen  personality  that  will  surely  find  in  its  time  a 
place  in  the  German  Valhalla."  Oddly  enough 
the  public  was  also  reminded  that  "the  presence 
of  Grand  Admiral  Von  Tirpitz  at  Konopisht  recalls 
again  the  question  which  was  never  fully  answered, 
to  wit:  What  were  the  contents  of  the  Treaty  of 
Alliance  between  Austria  and  Germany?"  The 
text  of  the  treaty  was  made  public  property  by  the 
late  Prince  Bismarck,  but  the  duties  and  rights  in 
the  treaty  were  never  disclosed  and  the  late  Prince 
himself  cynically  remarked  that  this  secret  would 
never  be  revealed  even  after  the  treaty  was  no 
longer  in  force. 

The  deliberations  of  Kaiser  and  Archduke  were 
held  in  such  profound  secrecy  that  only  the  repre^? 
sentative  of  the  Neues  Wiener  Tageblatt  was  allowed 
to  write,  basing  his  statement  on  a  "well-informed 
source,"  that  "in  spite  of  the  intimate  character  of 
the  meeting  the  conviction  could  not  be  dismissed 
that  highly  important  political  questions  and  es- 
pecially the  Austro-Hungarian  naval  policy  would  be 
discussed."  There  is  little  doubt,  however,  that  the 
conspirators  considered  the  whole  Balkan  situation. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  Kaiser's  stay  with  the 
Archduke,  Count  Berchtold  came  to  Konopisht 
to  take  part  in  the  deliberations.    The  Archduke 


austro-ger:man  intrigue       219 

Francis  Ferdinand  hurried  from  the  conference 
to  Trieste  to  embark  on  the  Austrian  dreadnaught 
Viribus  UnitiSy  which  was  to  bring  him  to  the 
shores  of  Dalmatia.  The  great  Bosnian  ma- 
noeuvres of  the  15th  and  16th  Army  Corps  began 
according  to  schedule  on  the  25  th  of  July  and 
ended  on  the  27th.  They  were  conducted  under 
the  leadership  of  Field  Marshal  Potiorek  as  army 
inspector  of  Sarajevo,  the  very  man  who  was,  ac- 
cording to  the  dispositions  of  the  General  Staff, 
to  lead  the  Austrian  army  of  invasion  into  Serbia. 
The  coming  of  Francis  Ferdinand  to  Bosnia  was 
greeted,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  by  all  papers, 
even  by  the  radical  Serbian  opposition  paper 
Srpska  RijeCj  politely  and  cordially.  Only  the 
Serbian  radical  paper,  Narod,  ignored  the  visit, 
and  brought  out  instead  an  article  commemorating 
the  famous  historical  Serbian  battle  of  Kossovo 
Field.  Otherwise  the  visit  of  Francis  Ferdinand 
to  Bosnia  was  not  marred  by  any  discordant  note 
on  the  side  of  the  sorely  tried  Jugoslav  people. 

How  the  Archduke  and  his  consort  met  their 
death  when  on  the  28th  of  June  of  1914  they  made 
their  triumphal  entry  into  the  capital  of  the  an- 
nexed provinces  is  well  known.  This  incident 
was  at  once  seized  upon  by  the  Ballplatz  and  our 
General  Staff  as  the  God-sent  instrument  by  which 
they  were  finally  to  be  able  to  realize  what  for 
six  years,  in  spite  of  constant  intrigues,  they  had 
failed  to  accomplish. 


220  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

The  value  of  the  Archduke's  assassination  for 
the  war  party  was  twofold.  First,  it  obliged  both 
adherents  and  antagonists  of  the  dynasty  to  ap- 
prove of  every  action  taken  to  vindicate  its  honour; 
second,  in  an  international  sense,  it  gave  to  the 
harsh  action  of  the  Ballplatz  a  moral  support  which 
no  other  casus  belli  could  have  received.  It  was 
realized  that  the  Archduke's  murder  would  arouse 
great  sympathy  in  all  the  monarchical  countries 
of  Europe. 

These  calculations  later  proved  correct.  The 
whole  blame  for  the  outbreak  of  the  war  was,  there- 
fore, at  first  attributed  to  the  Archduke's  assassina- 
tion. This  was  the  moment  for  Austria  to  act. 
It  was  only  necessary  to  point  to  Belgrade,  and  to 
make  a  causal  nexus  between  the  Archduke's  mur- 
der and  the  Serbian  Government.  The  murder 
of  a  king  is  not  an  infrequent  occurrence  in  mon- 
archical countries.  Three  murders  had  occurred 
around  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  himself.  His 
brother  Maximilian  was  executed  in  his  over- 
seas empire;  his  son,  Crown  Prince  Rudolph,  was 
killed  in  a  love  affair;  his  wife.  Empress  Elizabeth, 
was  stabbed  by  an  Italian. 

What  really  happened  after  the  death  of  the 
Archduke  was  this:  The  diplomats  packed  away 
their  notes,  the  General  Staff  unpacked  its  war 
plans.  The  directions  worked  out  for  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war,  which  were  lying  in  the  vaults  of 
the  various  ministries,  were  at  once  applied,  and 


AUSTRO-GER^IAN  INTRIGUE  221 

everything  developed  from  that  moment  according 
to  schedule. 

Deprived  of  their  patron  saint,  the  war  press 
organs  of  the  extreme  right  began  a  deluge  of  in- 
vectives, insinuations,  and  accusations  against 
Serbia  and  Russia.  The  Reichspostf  mouthpiece 
of  the  Christian  Socialists  and  of  Francis  Fer- 
dinand, demanded  on  the  first  of  July  that  "the 
last  unavoidable  step  be  undertaken  against 
this  nation  of  assassins  of  royalty,"  at  the  same 
time  announcing  that  "some  sort  of  ultimatum 
from  the  xVustrian  Government  will  be  sent  to 
Serbia."  The  clerical  journals  of  Germany  de- 
clared with  one  voice  that  "Belgrade  bears  the 
responsibility  for  the  plot";  conservative  journals 
stated  that  "Germans  must  now  make  a  definite 
stand  against  the  Slavs."  The  Germania  and 
Kolnische  Zeitung  insisted  upon  the  connivance 
of  Serbia  with  the  crime.  All  the  papers  knew  in 
advance  that  diplomatic  steps  would  be  taken 
after  consultation  with  the  Chief  of  the  General 
Staff,  and  the  Minister  of  War. 

In  Belgrade  the  first  sentiment  aroused  by  the 
iTUirder  at  Sarajevo  was  one  of  simple  human 
horror  and  pity.  The  Belgrade  press  condemned 
the  bloody  deed  and  expressed  the  deepest  indigna- 
tion at  this  act  of  anarchistic  folly. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  feeling  aroused  l)y  the 
murder  of  the  Archduke  the  authorities  in  Austria- 
Hungary  began  a  ruthless  persecution  of  our  own 


222  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Serbian  subjects  numbering  several  millions.  This 
persecution  subsequently  grew  in  violence  and 
with  the  oflScial  declaration  of  war  was  extended 
to  the  whole  Slav  south.  Its  dimensions  and  its 
horrors  were  even  greater  than  were  the  crimes  com- 
mitted by  the  Germans  in  their  invasion  of  Belgium. 
On  July  6th  Archduke  Frederick,  who  after  the 
death  of  Francis  Ferdinand  became  the  leader  of 
the  Austrian  war  party  and  subsequently  Com- 
mander in  Chief  of  the  Austrian  army,  had  an 
audience  with  the  Emperor,  and  on  the  following 
day  a  council  of  ministers  was  held  in  Vienna  at 
which  were  present,  in  addition  to  the  three  joint 
Ministers  for  Foreign  Affairs,  War,  and  Finance, 
the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  Premier,  Count 
Stuergkh  and  Count  Tisza.  Before  the  council 
was  held,  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  of  the  Army, 
Baron  Conrad  von  Hoetzendorf,  and  the  Naval 
Commander  in  Chief,  Von  Haus,  conferred  with  the 
ministers.  The  same  night  Count  Berchtold  left 
for  Ischl,  the  summer  residence  of  the  Emperor,  to 
receive  his  sanction  for  the  decisions  of  the  confer- 
ence. According  to  an  official  communication 
the  object  of  the  council  was  to  "discuss  measures 
of  internal  administration  for  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina, in  connection  with  which  the  Chief  of  the 
General  Staff  of  the  Army  and  the  Naval  Com- 
mander in  Chief  were  consulted  on  certain  *tech- 
nical  points'."  This  was  the  official  cloak  under 
which  the  most  momentous  decisions  in  the  his- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  223 

tory  of  Europe  were  hidden.  The  conference  was 
solely  of  a  political  character  as  neither  the  two 
Ministers  of  Finance  nor  the  two  Ministers  of  Com- 
merce were  present. 

"All  decisive  factors  are  in  accord,"  wrote  Baron 
Chlumetzky,  the  confidant  of  the  dead  Archduke 
and  the  mouthpiece  of  the  Foreign  Office,  "that 
the  Greater  Serbia  question  must  be  decided  once 
for  all,  if  it  is  possible,  by  peaceful  means;  if  not, 
by  blood  and  iron." 

The  two  military  chiefs  were  consulted  on  noth- 
ing more  or  less  than  the  exact  dates,  when  both 
army  and  navy  would  be  ready  to  strike.  Also 
the  date  for  the  ultimatum  to  be  sent  to  Serbia 
was  set  for  the  23d  of  the  same  month,  and  the 
28th  of  July  was  agreed  upon  as  the  day  to  start 
hostilities  against  Serbia:  that  is,  exactly  three 
weeks  were  asked  for  by  the  army  and  navy  chiefs 
for  their  final  preparations  for  war.  Lastly,  it  was 
decided  that  the  declaration  of  war  against  Russia 
would  follow  the  declaration  of  war  against  Serbia 
within  ten  days.  I  will  explain  this  delay  later  in 
speaking  of  the  protestations  that  were  made  by 
both  the  Austrian  and  German  governments 
against  the  Russian  mobilization.  The  utmost 
secrecy  was  maintained  concerning  this  conference. 
Only  the  Pester  Lloydy  the  organ  of  the  Hun- 
garian Government,  was  permitted  to  give  an  ex- 
planation why  "no  allusion  was  made  to  the  pro- 
jected diplomatic  demarche  at  Belgrade,  for  the 


224  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

purpose  of  drawing  the  attention  of  the  Serbian 
Government  to  the  trails,  which  according  to  the 
Sarajevo  investigations,  lead  directly  to  Belgrade," 
by  saying  that  the  "matter  is  not  yet  sufficiently 
ripe  to  be  submitted  to  the  glare  of  publicity." 
"The  Serbian  Government,"  the  paper  said,  "will 
be  shown  to  be  a  nest  of  pestilential  rats  which 
came  from  their  territory  over  our  border  to  spread 
death  and  destruction.  If  the  Serbian  Govern- 
ment shows  readiness  to  exterminate  this  nest  of 
rats  it  will  have  furnished  proof  of  its  upright 
sentiments,  and  again  make  good  its  title  to  neigh- 
bourly correctness,  which,  of  late,  has  been  disput- 
able." 

At  the  Vienna  Conference  Count  Tisza  took  upon 
himself  the  task  of  making  capital  out  of  the  assas- 
sination of  the  Archduke.  He  acquitted  himself 
in  a  masterly  fashion.  While  ceaselessly  attacking 
Serbia  through  the  press,  and  casting  aspersions 
on  Russia,  he  remained  silent  when  asked  to  de- 
clare himself  officially  in  regard  to  Serbia's  guilt. 
On  the  day  after  the  Vienna  Conference  Count 
Andrassy  put  several  questions  to  Prime  Minister 
Tisza.  He  asked:  "How  could  the  Government,  in 
face  of  the  well-known  critical  situation  in  Bosnia, 
plan  the  visit  of  the  heir  to  the  throne,  on  the 
Serbian  national  holiday,  when  such  a  visit  would 
be  interpreted  by  the  Serbs  as  a  provocation.'' 
Having  risked  the  dangers  inherent  in  such  a  visit, 
why  did  not  the  Government  take  proper  measures 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  225 

to  safeguard  the  Archduke?  What  excuse  had  the 
Government  for  allowing  the  heir  to  the  throne 
to  continue  on  his  way  after  the  first  attempt  on 
his  life?"  Count  Tisza's  reply  was  marked  by 
studied  reserve.  "The  Archduke,"  he  said,  "stood 
under  nobody's  guardianship  or  control.  He  had 
regarded  his  Bosnian  journey  purely  as  a  military 
inspection,  and  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  govern- 
ments received  no  preliminary  notice  of  it,  nor  did 
the  joint  Minister  of  Finance  receive  any  informa- 
tion as  to  the  details  of  the  programme."  To  the 
question  as  to  possible  diplomatic  steps  in  Serbia 
Tisza  replied  that  he  could  give  only  a  quite  general 
answer. 

This  was  the  role  Tisza  had  to  play.  Had  there 
been  the  slightest  proof  of  the  complicity  of  the 
Serbian  Government  or  of  Serbian  subjects  in  the 
crime  Tisza  was  not  the  man  to  hold  back  such 
proofs.  It  was  through  official  silence  that  Tisza 
constructed  a  casus  helli^  departing  entirely  from 
the  method  followed  hitherto  by  the  Ballplatz-- 
the  making  of  countless  accusations  which  finally 
could  not  be  sustained. 

On  July  14th  Tisza  came  to  Vienna  to  confer, 
first  with  Count  Berchtold,  then  with  Count 
Forgach.  It  was  at  this  visit  between  Tisza  and 
Forgach  that  the  ultimatum  to  Serbia  received 
its  final  form.  I  know  this  from  my  conversations 
with  Count  Forgach. 

A   second   attempt   was    made   on   July    15lh 


226  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

to  force  Tisza  to  declare  himself.  In  the  Lower 
House  of  the  Hungarian  Parliament,  replying  to  an 
interpellation  by  M.  Szmrecsanyi,  Count  Tisza 
said  regarding  Serbia's  connection  with  the  Sarajevo 
murders,  that  "Austria-Hungary's  relations  with 
Serbia  must  be  made  clear.  War  is  a  sad  argu- 
ment. The  question  has  been  raised  whether  the 
present  uncertainty  must  not  inevitably  be  de- 
cided by  war,  and  I  must  say  that  a  state  which 
does  not  consider  war  as  the  ultima  ratio  can  not 
call  itself  a  state." 

When  Count  Berchtold  reported  to  the  Emperor 
at  Ischl  the  results  of  the  fateful  Council  of  Min- 
isters, no  official  communique  was  made  public  as 
to  the  cause  of  the  audience.  The  Neues  Wiener 
Tageblattf  which  had  relations  with  the  Foreign 
Office,  stated,  however,  that  "no  diplomatic  step 
which  may  be  made  at  Belgrade  will  imply  any 
interference  with  the  sovereign  rights  of  the  Serbian 
state,  nor  will  anything  be  exacted  which  could  be 
interpreted  as  an  affront  or  as  a  humiliation." 
This  statement  was  made  to  appease  somewhat 
the  feverish  excitement  in  the  monarchy.  Fur- 
thermore, to  deceive  Europe,  the  same  skilful 
manoeuvre  was  tried  in  Austria  as  was  resorted 
to  in  Germany.  All  the  war  chiefs  were  sent  on 
leave  of  absence  including  Baron  Conrad  von 
Hoetzendorf ,  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff  of  the 
Army;  Herr  Krobatin,the  joint  Minister  of  War, 
and  both  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  Ministers 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  527 

of  National  Defence.  But  those  who  were  closely 
watching  the  situation  in  Austria-Hungary  were 
not  deceived  by  these  manoeuvres.  The  real  gravity 
of  the  situation  could  not  be  concealed. 

On  the  21st  of  July,  that  is  two  days  before  we 
presented  the  ultimatum  to  Serbia,  the  mobiliza- 
tion of  officers  of  the  reserve  was  started.  On 
the  same  day  Baron  Giesl  reported  to  Count  Berch- 
told,  from  Belgrade,  that  "a  reckoning  with  Serbia, 
a  war  for  the  position  of  the  monarchy  as  a  great 
power,  even  for  its  existence  as  such,  can  not  be 
permanently  avoided.  If  we  delay  in  clearing 
up  our  relations  with  Serbia,  we  should  share  the 
responsibilities  for  the  difficulties  and  the  unfavour- 
able situation  in  any  future  war  which  must  sooner 
or  later  be  carried  through."  The  baron  at  the 
same  time  warned  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
against  half-measures,  long  discussions,  or  com- 
promises. 

A  third  and  last  attempt  was  made  in  Budapest 
on  July  22d,  the  day  before  the  ultimatum  to 
Serbia  was  delivered,  to  make  Count  Tisza  lift 
the  veil  surrounding  the  conference  of  July  7th. 
Contrary  to  expectations  Tisza  did  not  answer 
these  new  interpellations  of  Count  Andrassy  on  the 
Austro-Serbian  situation.  "I  am  unable,"  Tisza 
said,  "for  the  time  being  to  reply  to  you — I  do 
not  consider  it  in  the  interests  of  the  country  that 
the  matter  should  be  ventilated  at  this  moment 
nor  am  I  in  a  position  to  impart  information." 


228  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

The  following  day,  July  23d,  the  fatal  ultimatum 
was  sent  to  Belgrade.  The  contents  of  this  docu- 
ment are  too  well  known  to  call  for  comment  here. 
On  the  day  following  the  presentation  of  this 
ultimatum,  Tisza,  for  the  first  time,  broke  his 
silence.  Before  the  Hungarian  Parliament  he 
said:  "In  the  conviction  that  our  cause  is  just 
and  that  the  vital  interests  of  the  monarchy  and 
of  the  Hungarian  Crown  demand  it,  we  will  bear 
all  the  consequences  of  this  step."  Then  Count 
Andrassy  rose  and  made  the  following  declaration: 
"In  spite  of  the  great  differences  which  separate 
us  from  the  Government,  we  will  do  our  patriotic 
duty  in  every  respect."  Tisza  on  his  side  thanked 
Count  Andrassy  "for  his  great  services"  by  saying: 
"I  never  expected  anything  else  from  him."  With 
this  statement  the  comedy  was  closed.  On  hear- 
ing Tisza  and  Andrassy  exchange  these  words  all 
the  deputies  arose  and  with  wild  applause  and  cries 
of  "Hail,  Hail,"  the  sinister  performance  came  to 
an  end. 

Keeping  in  mind  the  above  facts,  the  reader  will 
be  able  to  understand  the  cynical  farce  which  the 
Ballplatz  diplomats  played  between  that  day  and 
the  declaration  of  war  against  Serbia  on  July  28th 
and  against  Russia  on  August  6th.  The  days 
between  July  23d  and  August  5th  have  been 
declared  the  thirteen  critical  days  of  the  World 
War,  meaning  that  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
was  an  imminent  danger  but  still  avoidable  by 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  229 

the  application  of  the  proper  diplomatic  means. 
In  reality,  those  critical  clays  never  existed  as  far  as 
Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  were  concerned. 
This  is  clearly  shown  by  my  own  conversation  with 
Count  Forgach  of  July  27th. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Military  Chiefs  Assume  Complete  Con- 
trol OF  Austro-German  Foreign  Affairs 

COUNT   FORGACH's    CONFESSION   EXPLODES   THEORY 
OF    SO-CALLED    "CRITICAL    DAYs"    OF    WORLD    WAR 

IT  WAS  on  the  eve  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
that  I  arrived  in  Vienna,  having  left  San  Fran- 
cisco, my  last  post,  in  the  beginning  of  April, 
1914.  From  the  facts  which  I  disclose  in  Chapter 
XIV  in  regard  to  the  mobilization  of  an  army  of 
half  a  million  Austrians  in  the  United  States  of 
America  I  knew  that  war  was  coming,  and  was 
firmly  determined  to  resign  my  position  in  case 
of  Austria's  declaration  of  war  against  Serbia  and 
Russia. 

In  August,  1913,  I  was  asked  in  San  Francisco 
what  I  thought  of  the  general  political  situation 
in  Europe  after  the  close  of  the  second  Balkan  war. 
"Now  will  come,"  I  said,  "the  great  World  War." 
"Why  do  you  judge  that  the  great  World  War  is  in 
sight?"  I  was  asked.  I  replied:  "I  am  certain 
of  the  coming  of  the  World  War  from  the  oflScial 
knowledge  I  have  of  the  preparations  for  it.  It 
will  take  only  a  cablegram  with  one  word  to  put 

230 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  231 

everything  in  motion  as  far  as  the  minute  prepara- 
tions in  America  are  concerned.  An  army  of  half 
a  milHon  men  will  be  on  the  eastern  coast  inside  of 
fourteen  days  to  be  transported  to  Europe,  provided 
that  England  remains  neutral,  and  it  is  expected  in 
Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  that  she  will  do  so." 

On  leaving  America,  in  April,  1914,  to  spend  a 
six-months'  vacation  in  the  country  of  my  birth,  I 
went  by  way  of  Japan  and  Russia  to  gauge  the 
feeling  there  in  regard  to  the  general  political  situa- 
tion of  Europe.  In  Tokio  I  received  very  im- 
portant hints  from  Major  Putz,  of  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  General  Staff — our  military  attache  in 
Japan.  He  told  me  that  both  Austria-Hungary  and 
Germany  were  making  frantic  endeavours  to  get 
Japan  on  their  side,  but  that  unfortunately  the 
friendship  of  Japan  for  Russia  was  at  the  time  a 
great  obstacle  to  their  designs. 

On  arriving  at  Mukden,  IVIanchuria,  I  visited 
the  German  Consul  of  that  locality,  Hugo  Witte 
by  name.  In  conversation  with  him  I  said:  "You 
told  me  that  the  political  situation  in  the  Far  East 
is  the  best  barometer  for  judging  the  situation  in 
Europe.  Will  the  great  European  war,  according 
to  your  opinion,  really  come  in  the  near  future.'*" 
His  reply  was  as  follows:  "As  sure  as  death.  You 
Austrians  will  soon  get  a  new  emperor  who  will 
be  ready  to  do  everything  and  who  will  slrike  at  the 
next  opportunity  at  Serbia  and  Russia.  In  short, 
a  man  who  will  not  let  himself  be  put  off  by  any 


232  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

considerations  from  precipitating  the  war  which 
is  essential  to  Austria-Hungary's  ultimate  peace 
and  security."  "Why  should  Germany,"  I  said, 
"proceed  aggressively  against  Russia?"  "For 
the  simple  reason,"  Mr.  Witte replied,  "that  Russia 
has  immense,  undeveloped,  and  uncultivated  terri- 
tories in  her  empire.  These  territories  must  be 
opened  up  to  human  activity.  Russia  threatens 
the  whole  world.  We  must  finally  procure  for  our- 
selves peace,  and  that  for  all  time.  The  con- 
tinuous unrest  and  war  danger,  in  peace  time,  must 
finally  come  to  an  end.  Pan-Slavism  must  be 
destroyed  for  ever.  Russia  must  be  partitioned 
among  Austria-Hungary,  Germany,  Sweden, 
Rumania,  Turkey,  and  Japan.  The  situation  has 
become  intolerable  for  us.  The  last  hour  has 
struck.  We  must  give  Russia  such  a  blow  that  we 
may  take  away  from  her  not  only  the  Baltic  prov- 
inces but  also  Petrograd,  and  make  Finland  inde- 
pendent or  give  it  to  Sweden.  Austria-Hungary 
must  get  Little  Russia  with  Kieff;  Rumania  must 
get  Bessarabia;  Turkey  must  get  the  Caucasus, 
and  Great  Britain  must  grasp  the  opportunity  of 
finally  assuring  herself  the  possession  of  Thibet. 
As  allies  we  shall  have  Austria-Hungary,  Sweden, 
Rumania,  Bulgaria,  and  Greece  (to  which  latter 
country  we  will  give  a  part  of  Macedonia). 
Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  Japan  must  invade 
Siberia.  We  reckon  with  absolute  certainty  on 
a  revolution  in  Poland,  Little   Russia,  Finland, 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  233 

the  Caucasus,  and  other  parts  of  Russia.  We  want 
to  keep  open  the  great  commercial  and  mihtary 
Transsiberian  road  for  ourselves  in  order  to  be  able 
to  protect  Tsingtau  in  case  it  should  come  to 
a  partition  of  China.  We  count  with  absolute 
certainty  on  victory  because  Great  Britain  will 
certainly  remain  neutral.  Against  France  we  will 
sacrifice  more  than  a  million  men  and  will  strike  at 
a  certain  weak  line  in  her  defences.  This  weak 
line  is  Belgium.  In  this  way  we  shall  break  into 
France.  The  Russians,  on  the  contrary,  we  will 
allow  to  come  as  close  as  possible  and  will  give  them 
free  access  near  the  fortress  of  Thorn.  We  will 
then  surround  and  completely  annihilate  them. 
We  will  destroy  Russia  and  will  ask  at  the  Peace 
Conference  such  economic  advantages  as  will  make 
our  situation  secure  for  all  time.  Then  we  shall 
finally  have  peace  in  the  East  and  we  will  be  free 
from  this  eternal  menace  of  war  on  the  side  of 
Russia.  Thus  Pan-Slavism  will  be  crushed  for 
ever." 

This  conversation  I  had  with  Consul  Witte  in 
the  early  part  of  May,  1014,  and  I  took  great  care  to 
record  it  exactly  word  for  word.  To  a  Spanish 
colleague  with  whom  I  travelled  through  the  Far 
East  I  said  at  that  time,  in  acquainting  him  with 
the  conversation  I  had  had,  that  according  to  all 
appearances  war  would  break  out  sooner  than  was 
expected.  As  far  as  the  German  Consul's  ref- 
erence to  Tsingtau  was  concerned,  I  must  mention 


234  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

that  as  early  as  the  winter  of  1913-14  the  great 
project  of  a  German  railroad  stretching  from  Con- 
stantinople to  Kiao  Chau  was  advocated  by  Ger- 
mans, first  by  a  certain  Herr  Landrichter  Romburg, 
and  then  by  Herr  Henning  who  was  of  the  opinion 
that  the  most  propitious  moment  had  arrived  for 
a  firm  economic  policy  in  China  which  would  make 
of  Tsingtau  the  great  world  harbour  of  the  future 
in  the  Far  East. 

In  Vladivostok  I  called  upon  Dr.  G.  Stobbe,  the 
German  Consul  of  that  locality,  with  whom  I  left 
the  city,  he  going  to  his  home  and  I  proceeding  by 
train  to  Chabarovsk.  The  conversation  I  had  on 
the  train  with  him  confirmed  in  all  essentials  what 
I  had  heard  in  Tokio  and  Mukden.  Among  other 
things  he  said:  "You  see  over  there  the  point  where 
the  three  empires,  China,  Korea,  and  Russia,  meet. 
It  is  from  that  corner  that  the  blow  will  be  struck 
and  the  advancing  Japanese  will  cut  off  the  fortress 
of  Vladivostok.  These  fools,  the  Russians,  are 
spending  hundreds  of  millions  of  roubles  to  hold 
Vladivostok,  and  do  not  know  that  it  will  soon  be 
taken  away  from  them  and  that  they  will  thus  lose 
the  last  port  they  have  in  the  East.  The  alliance 
of  Japan  and  Germany  is  a  certainty.  In  the  war 
between  Germany  and  Russia  we  will  let  Japan  take 
Siberia  up  to  Lake  Baikal." 

Full  of  heavy  forebodings  I  travelled  on,  never- 
theless hoping  against  hope  that  the  disaster 
of   war   would    be  averted.     When    in   Askabad 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  235 

under  the  scorching  sun  of  Russian  Central  Asia 
I  heard  for  the  first  time  that  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand  had  been  assassinated.  I  hurried  home, 
visiting  on  my  journey  my  colleagues  in  Tiflis 
in  Trans-Caucasia,  also  in  Moscow  and  Petro- 
grad,  everywhere  seeing  ominous  signs  of  the 
coming  war.  WTien  on  July  SOth  I  arrived  at 
Warsaw  I  was  more  than  startled  by  what  I  saw 
there  in  the  office  of  our  Consul  General.  This  was 
one  of  the  greatest  consulates  that  Austria-Hungary 
had  before  the  war.  The  whole  Consulate  was  like 
a  beehive,  although  the  day  was  Sunday.  It  did 
not  take  me  long  to  find  out  that  the  general 
mobilization  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  armies  was 
in  full  swing.  On  visiting  the  Consul  General, 
Baron  Werburg,  who  was  at  the  same  time  First 
Secretary  of  our  Embassy  in  Petrograd,  I  had  a 
most  interesting  conversation  with  him  in  regard 
to  the  coming  war.  He  told  me  in  so  many  words: 
*'  War  is  inevitable.  The  mobilization  is  well  under 
way."  "You  don't  mean  to  start  war  against 
Russia,"  I  said  to  him.  "Of  course  we  will,"  he 
said.  "Russia  is  not  prepared  this  time  and  is 
completely  at  our  mercy."  "You  are  greatly  mis- 
taken," I  told  him;  "I  have  travelled  more  than 
four  months  all  over  Russia  and  I  am  absolutely 
convinced  that  in  starting  war  with  Russia  we  will 
bring  the  greatest  disaster  upon  our  country  and 
upon  Europe  in  general,  because  Russia  will  defend 
herself  to  the  last  man.     She  has  plenty  of  fighting 


236  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

material,  is  comparatively  well  equipped,  and  has 
excellent  roads  although  they  are  not  numerous." 
"You  don't  understand  me,"  Baron  Werburg 
said,  "it  is  not  by  military  force  alone  that  we  will 
overwhelm  Russia,  but  by  other  more  potent 
factors,  and  that  is  internal  revolution."  "In  my 
opinion,"  I  said,  "this  is  the  most  elusive  hope 
that  we  can  have  in  an  engagement  with  Russia. 
The  Russian  Poles  will  not  revolt  if  it  comes  to 
war."  "I  am  absolutely  certain,"  Baron  Werburg 
replied,  "of  revolution  in  Poland  as  well  as  in  the 
Ukraine  and  other  parts  of  Russia." 

This  gave  me  food  for  thought,  and  leaving  him 
to  his  revolutionary  activities  I  tried  to  ascertain 
among  the  officials  how  things  really  stood  in  re- 
gard to  the  revolution  which  was  in  preparation. 
I  was  told  by  one  of  the  secretaries  whose  name  I 
cannot  divulge  that  for  years  revolutionary  propa- 
ganda had  been  carried  on  by  the  Consul  General 
in  Warsaw.  The  same  was  done  by  our  repre- 
sentatives in  Kieff,  Odessa,  and  other  places,  as  I 
ascertained  later  in  Vienna.  Before  leaving  War- 
saw I  was  asked  by  Baron  Werburg  to  act  as  a 
courier  for  him,  in  order  to  avoid  sending  a  special 
messenger  to  Vienna.  I  consented  to  do  so,  and 
highly  important  documents  relating  to  the  war 
were  subsequently  entrusted  to  my  keeping.  Had 
I  wanted  to  betray  Austria  I  could  easily  have  done 
it  then  and  very  important  material  would  have 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Russian  Government. 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  237 

From  Warsaw  I  went  to  Granica  and  crossed  in- 
to Austrian  territory.  I  found  the  morning  papers 
there  with  big  headlines:  "Revolution  all  over  Rus- 
sia!"— "The  Czar  of  Russia  murdered!  "  I  found 
later  that  this  report  was  intentionally  circulated 
by  the  already  familiar  Literary  or  Press  Bureau  of 
our  Foreign  Ministry.  This  news  had  gone  the 
rounds  of  the  whole  German  press.  "The  wish  was 
father  to  the  thought." 

On  arriving  in  Vienna  I  at  once  proceeded  to  the 
Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  to  deliver  my  secret 
dispatches  to  the  Political  Department.  Then  I 
went  to  see  Count  Forgach,  the  Under  Secretary 
for  Foreign  Affairs  with  whom  the  reader  is  fa- 
miliar. Count  Berchtold,  the  minister,  was  absent 
that  day  from  the  city,  having  gone  to  consult  the 
Emperor  in  Isclil.  It  was  Forgach,  who  in  the 
absence  of  the  minister,  acted  as  his  representative. 
When  I  was  announced  to  Count  Forgach,  I  was 
asked  to  wait  because  he  was  in  conference  with 
the  French  Ambassador,  M.  Dumaine.  The  con- 
versation of  the  French  Ambassador  with  Count 
Forgach  lasted  some  time  and  it  was  not  until 
half-past  six  in  the  evening  that  I  was  received. 
The  count  greeted  me  very  cordially.  During  the 
troubled  period  in  Belgrade  at  the  time  of  the 
annexation  crisis  he  had,  in  spite  of  our  violent 
difl'erences  of  opinion,  shown  marked  consideration 
toward  me.  He  was  personally  one  of  the  most 
likable  diplomats  that  I  have  ever  known.     Having 


238  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

inherited  from  his  Jewish  mother  the  best  qualities 
of  the  Jewish  race,  he  was  keen  and  ambitious  and 
one  of  the  most  capable  of  men.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  he  would  have  become  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs  of  the  empire  had  not  his  ambition  carried 
him  too  far  and  had  he  not  associated  himself  with 
Count  Tisza.  Soon  after  the  latter  became  Premier 
of  Hungary  in  June,  1913,  he  brought  Count  Forgach 
from  his  diplomatic  exile  at  Dresden  to  the  Min- 
istry of  Foreign  Affairs  at  Vienna  in  place  of  Count 
Szapary,  who  was  sent  as  Ambassador  to  Petrograd. 
These  diplomatic  changes  took  place  in  the  month 
of  September,  1913. 

After  having  exchanged  the  usual  phrases  of 
greeting  I  at  once  turned  the  conversation  to  the 
topic  of  war.  *'Do  you  know.  Count,"  I  said, 
"that  our  note  to  Serbia  has  made  an  immense  im- 
pression in  Russia.''  The  people  are  greatly  stirred 
by  the  sharpness  of  its  tone  and  it  is  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  provocative  acts  which  our  diplo- 
macy has  done  in  the  long,  troubled  period  since 
the  annexation  times.  I  am  afraid,"  I  added,  "that 
it  will  lead  to  grave  consequences."  "Why,  there 
is  nothing  in  it,"  answered  Count  Forgach,  "that 
could  be  interpreted  as  an  aggression  against 
Serbia  or  Russia.  We  merely  ask  what  is  right." 
"It  is  not  only  in  Russia,"  I  said,  "that  the  note 
has  made  a  profound  impression.  I  had  occasion 
to  hear,  and  to  convince  myself  from  the  news- 
papers, that  the  note  has  been  received  throughout 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  239 

Europe,  especially  in  France,  Great  Britain,  and 
Italy,  with  general  disapproval.  I  heard  in  the 
Ministry  that  it  was  Count  Tisza  who  had  com- 
posed the  note.  Knowing  you  as  I  do,  I  never 
doubted  from  the  very  beginning  that  the  note  had 
not  been  composed  by  you,  Count."  "Well," 
said  the  count,  "but  I  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
note  [Ich  habe  die  Note  initunterschrieben],  there- 
fore I  fully  approve  of  its  contents." 

I  was  then  closely  questioned  by  Count  Forgach 
on  the  conditions  I  had  found  in  Russia  during  my 
travels  there.  I  told  him  all  I  knew  about  the 
splendid  human  material  the  Russian  army  and 
navy  had;  about  the  excellent  equipment  that  I 
had  seen  in  several  parts  of  Russia,  and  many  other 
things  that  would  weigh  heavily  in  the  scales  if  it 
came  to  a  war  with  that  country.  I  also  said  that 
all  our  calculations  might  prove  wrong  in  the  end 
when  it  came  to  the  supreme  test  on  the  battle-field, 
and  that  the  reports  of  our  representatives  in 
Russia  about  the  unpreparedness  of  Russia  for 
war  were  all  too  optimistically  believed.  I  pointed 
especially  to  the  Russian  railroads  which  were  in 
good  condition  although  pcrhaj)s  not  sufficient  to 
carry  out  quickly  the  great  reciuiremcnls  under 
stress  of  a  rapid  mobilization.  I  said  all  this  to  im- 
press Count  Forgach  and  to  try  at  the  last  moment 
to  convert  him  to  a  more  conciliatory  attitude 
toward  the  great  Issues  that  were  arising. 

Although  I  knew  the  determination  of  the  Count 


240  THE  INSroE  STOR^  OF 

in  the  matter  of  war  and  peace  and  that  his  opinion 
had  long  been  made  up,  I  nevertheless  tried  to  do  all 
that  was  possible  to  impress  upon  him  the  great  re- 
sponsibility he  and  his  colleagues  would  assume  in 
precipitating  a  great  European  war.  "Russia," 
I  said,  "will  never  permit  Serbia  to  be  crushed." 
"What  has  Russia  to  do,"  Count  Forgach  retorted, 
"with  our  dealings  with  Serbia?"  "I  will  not 
argue  that  point,"  I  said.  "It  is  not  a  matter  of 
opinion  solely,  but  I  am  certain  that  Russia  is 
determined  to  go  to  the  limit,  where  her  life  in- 
terests are  at  stake  as  they  are  in  the  Balkans. 
Russia  must  of  necessity  guard  her  political  and 
economic  interests  there.  If  she  loses  free  access 
to  the  Mediterranean  her  entire  commercial  life 
and  industry  will  come  to  a  standstill.  In  Samara 
on  the  Volga,"  I  said,  "I  spoke  to  a  prominent 
industrialist  and  great  land-owner  from  Orenburg. 
He  told  me  that  the  war  with  Japan  did  not  in- 
terest Russia  as  such,  but  that  it  would  be  very 
different  if  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  should 
attack  her.  'That,'  he  said,  'will  be  a  life-and- 
death  struggle  for  Russia,  and  we  are  willing  to 
sacrifice  our  lives  and  our  fortunes  on  the  altar  of 
our  mother  country.'  From  a  different  angle  I 
heard  the  same  story  from  a  teacher  in  one  of  the 
Cossack  stanitzas  on  the  Amur  River  in  the  Russian 
Far  East.  Speaking  with  him  on  the  political 
situation  of  Europe  he  said:  'We  Russians  will 
never  allow  the  Balkan  Slavs  to  be  crushed.     We 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  241 

feel  one  with  them  and  with  the  Slavs  of  Austria- 
Hungary.'  Such  is  the  spirit  all  over  Russia." 
Realizing  the  gravity  of  the  hour  I  implored 
Count  Forgach:  "Do  everything  in  your  power 
to  avoid  war  with  Russia.  It  will  be  the  most 
terrible  war  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Do  every- 
thing in  your  power,  Count,  to  continue  with 
Russia  the  peaceful  diplomatic  conversations.  To 
that  end,  engage  the  good  services  of  France. 
j\I.  Dumaine  has  just  had  a  long  conversation 
witli  you.  Through  him  you  can  exercise  a  decid- 
ing influence  upon  Russia." 

As  a  last  resort  I  said:  "The  Slavs  of  Austria- 
Hungary  will  regard  the  war  with  Russia  and 
Serbia  as  a  fratricidal  war,  whatever  our  statesmen 
may  say  to  the  contrary.  The  revolution  in 
Russia,  on  which  we  are  basing  such  great  hopes, 
is  a  chimera.  In  Granica  I  drew  the  attention 
of  a  Pole  from  Russian  PoUmd,  who  travelled 
with  me,  to  the  headlines  in  the  newspapers 
which  clearly  portrayed  our  wish  to  see  a  revolu- 
tion started  in  Poland.  He  was  greatly  amused 
at  our  ingenuousness.  *The  interests  of  theRussian 
Poles,'  he  said,  'are  with  Russia,  politically  and 
economically,  and  not  with  Prussia." 

I  was  surprised  at  my  own  boldness  in  pre- 
senting all  the  various  arguments  against  war. 
some  of  which  were  of  a  very  dangerous  nature  to 
mention  before  a  high  Austrian  official.  But  I  was 
so  appalled  by   the  frightful   menace  of  the  im- 


242  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

pending  calamity  that  I  paid  no  attention  to  my 
personal  security.  Besides,  Count  Forgach  knew 
me  very  well.  I  had  had  a  similar  conversation 
with  him  in  the  crisis  of  1908-09.  I  concluded 
with  the  plea:  "I  beg  you  once  again,  Count,  to 
do  everything  in  your  power  to  avoid  the  World 
War."  To  which  appeal  he  replied:  "Diplomacy 
can  do  nothing  more,  everything  is  already  in  the 
hands  of  the  military."  With  these  words  he 
shook  my  hand  and  I  left  him  hurriedly  to  go  in 
search  of  my  numerous  Slav  friends  in  Vienna. 

For  a  long  time  I  wandered,  lost  in  thought, 
through  the  crooked  old  streets  of  that  fascinating, 
gay,  careless  capital,  that  soon — ^I  realized  it  only 
too  keenly — must  pass  through  the  terrible  ordeal 
of  fire.  One  thing  was  clear  to  me  and  that  was 
that  war  was  inevitable.  "Diplomacy  can  do 
nothing  more;  everything  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
military."  I  knew  Count  Forgach  too  well  not 
to  realize  what  a  terrible  meaning  these  words  of 
his  had.  I  remembered  distinctly  how  he,  as 
Austro-Hungarian  Minister  in  Belgrade  in  the 
days  of  the  annexation  crisis,  waited  patiently 
long  days  and  nights  to  deliver  the  ominous  ulti- 
matum to  the  Serbian  Government;  how,  finally, 
he  lost  in  the  diplomatic  game  he  was  playing; 
how  he  was  transferred,  or  rather  banished, 
to  the  unimportant  court  of  a  German  vassal 
potentate;  how  finally  the  war  party  had  rescued 
him  from  there  and  brought  him  to  the  Ballplatz 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  243 

where  the  great  war  plans  were  made.  His  day 
of  revenge  had  come. 

Realizing  that  nothing  would  deter  these  terrible 
men  from  carrying  out  tlieir  plans,  I  resolved  to 
stay  in  the  capital  to  see  how  the  great  events 
shaped  themselves.  My  first  interest  centred 
around  the  problem  as  to  how  the  Ballplatz  would 
extricate  itself  from  the  extremely  delicate  position 
in  which  it  was  put  by  Sir  Edward  Grey  who  at  the 
beginning  of  the  conflict  proposed  that  "the  am- 
bassadors of  Germany,  Italy,  and  France  should 
meet  under  my  presidency  in  London,"  thus  virtu- 
ally reviving  the  London  Conference  of  Ambas- 
sadors which  at  the  time  of  the  Balkan  Wars  had 
proved  such  a  reliable  instrument  to  hold  in  check 
the  war  mania  of  Austria. 

Our  war  party  dreaded  nothing  so  much  as  a 
conference  of  ambassadors  or  indeed  any  in- 
fluential international  conference.  It  would  again 
spoil  their  game.  I  learned  that  Germany  had, 
the  day  before,  that  is  on  the  27th,  declined  to 
participate  in  the  London  conference  "because 
she  would  not  place  Austria  before  a  European 
tribunal."  Count  Berchtold  came  out  on  the 
28th  of  July,  as  I  learned  later,  with  the  state- 
ment that  Austria-Hungary  could  neither  re- 
cede from  her  demands  nor  enter  into  any  dis- 
cussions about  the  terms  of  the  Austro-Hungarian 
note.  This  was  exactly  in  line  with  the  views 
stated  by  Count  Forgach  the  previous  day.     The 


244  AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE 

events  that  quickly  followed  each  other  that  fate- 
ful day  did  not  surprise  me.  First,  the  declaration 
of  war  against  Serbia;  second,  the  answer  of  Count 
Berchtold  to  Grey's  conference  proposal,  namely, 
that  that  proposal  was  nullified  by  the  state  of 
war  which  already  existed. 

On  the  day  of  Austria's  declaration  of  war  against 
Serbia  mob  demonstrations  took  place  in  Vienna 
before  the  Hofburg,  the  Ballplatz,  and  the  Ministry 
of  War,  the  demonstrators  crying  at  the  top  of 
their  voices:  "Down  with  Russia!"  "Down  with 
Serbia!"     "Longlive  the  War!" 

The  Socialist  paper,  Vorwaerts,  of  Berlin,  on 
July  28th,  in  an  article  entitled  "War  or  Peace," 
said*:  "Czarism  is  not  this  moment  the  worst 
war  danger,  but  the  ill-informed  Austria  which 
lives  under  the  insane  illusion  that  it  needs  only 
to  give  the  signal,  and  the  whole  of  Europe  will 
sound  the  bugle  to  bring  the  flower  of  its  youth  as  a 
holocaust  for  the  assassination  of  its  heir  to  the 
throne." 

The  die  was  cast.  The  fatal  step,  which  was 
to  plunge  the  world  into  the  most  terrible  catas- 
trophe of  history,  had  been  taken.  Thus  after  six 
years  of  intrigue  did  the  Austrian  and  German 
diplomats  and  military  leaders  realize  their  aims. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Russian  Mobilization  as  the  Cause  of  the 

War 

a   glimpse  behind    the    scenes    in    BERLIN    DUR- 
ING  the   FIRST    THREE   MONTHS   OF   THE   WAR 

THE  Austro-Hungarian  war  party  liad 
finally  reaped  its  triumph.  Our  aruiies 
were  storming  the  gates  of  Serbia  and  our 
militarists  hoped  to  lay  Serbia,  on  the  18th  of 
August,  the  name-day  of  the  Emperor,  as  a  gift 
before  the  throne  of  old  Francis  Joseph;  and  then 
proceed  with  all  their  forces  to  the  conquest  of 
(Jreat  Russia.  "We  will  throw  Russia  behind  the 
Volga;  nay,  we  will  chase  the  Russians  behind  the 
Ural  Mountains;  back  into  the  steppes  of  Asia." 
So  I  was  told  by  an  imperial  Court  official  when 
talking  with  him  while  watching  the  mobilization 
in  the  spacious  court  of  the  Emj)cror's  stables. 
"Will  Russia  attack  us,"  1  asked,  "or  will  we  at- 
tack Russia?"  "We  will  find  a  pretext  for  war 
with  Russia,"  said  the  official,  "sooner  than  any- 
body thinks.  Besides,  we  expect  that  Russia  will 
attack  us  on  account  of  our  invasion  of  Serbia; 
and  Russia's  move  will  automatically  bring  Ger- 

i45 


246  THE  INSroE  STORY  OF 

many  into  the  war."  "Does  this  last  follow,*'  I 
asked  further,  "from  our  treaty  of  alliance  with 
Germany?  We  have  not  been  attacked  by  Serbia 
and  I  thought  that  the  Treaty  of  Alliance  was  purely 
a  defensive  one."  "You  remember  the  great 
debate  last  year  between  the  Socialist  and  Cen- 
trist parties  in  the  German  Reichstag,"  the  Court 
oflScial  said,  "when  Prince  Loewenstein  accused 
Herr  Ledebour  and  his  political  friends  of  trying 
to  prevent  Germany  from  making  war  by  foment- 
ting  internal  revolution?" 

"'The  obligation  to  help  Austria,'  Prince  Loew- 
enstein then  said,  *  arises  if  Austria  is  attacked 
by  any  third  power;  Austria  on  her  side  would 
certainly  help  Germany  if — ^assuming  the  fantastic 
case — we  should  attack  Denmark,  and  should  be 
for  this  attacked  by  France  and  Russia.'  Applying 
the  above  formula  to  our  attack  on  Serbia,  it 
follows  that  Germany  will  join  us,  that  is  to  say, 
our  attack  on  Serbia  will  automatically  provide 
Germany  the  casus  foederis.^' 

But  even  at  this  I  was  extremely  curious  to  see 
how  Germany  would  find  a  plausible  pretext  for 
war  against  Russia,  if  Austria  was  attacked  by 
Russia  alone.  I  very  soon  learned  how  the  German 
war  party  created  such  a  pretext  in  the  Russian 
mobilization.  Problems  of  time  and  distance 
seriously  influenced  Russia's  mobilization.  Her 
far-flung  garrisons  in  the  Caucasus,  Central  Asia, 
and  Siberia  weakened  the  strength  of  her  army. 


AUSTRO-GERM/VN  INTRIGUE  247 

In  the  Bosnian  crisis  of  1908-09  Russia  received  a 
very  unpleasant  reminder  of  the  danger  of  unpre- 
paredness  for  war.  At  that  time  800,000  German 
troops  could  have  been  thrown  upon  the  Vistula 
at  the  very  outbreak  of  the  war,  while  400,000  Aus- 
tro-Hungarian  troops  could  have  been  thrown 
against  Warsaw  and  Brest-Litovsk  from  the  south, 
thus  cutting  off  the  Russian  armies  in  Poland.  The 
operation  would  have  been  successful,  because 
Russia  would  have  been  unable  to  oppose  this 
force  with  more  than  a  couple  of  army  corps  within 
a  week's  time.  The  rest  of  her  army,  of  which 
800,000  men  might  have  been  aligned  against 
Germany  and  400,000  against  Austria,  could  not 
have  been  ready  under  three  weeks,  and  could  not 
have  taken  the  field  under  a  month.  This  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  Russia  had  on  a  peace  footing 
at  that  time  an  army  of  approximately  1,200,000 
men. 

In  the  crisis  of  1912  and  1913  Russia's  position 
was  better,  because,  seeing  Austria-Hungary  mo- 
bilized, on  the  Serbian  as  well  as  on  the  Russian 
frontiers,  Russia  retained  a  year's  class  under  the 
colours  instead  of  sending  them  home  as  reservists. 
Hence  our  wailings  at  that  time  regarding  the 
Russian  mobilization,  and  finally  the  sending  of 
Prince  Ilohenlohe  with  an  autograph  letter  of  the 
Emperor  to  Czar  Nicholas  to  beg  him  to  send  the 
surplus  troops  home.  Profiting  by  this  experience, 
our  General  Staff  wanted  this  time  to  bafile  Russia; 


248  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

to  hold  up  her  mobilization;  to  gain  time  to  mobilize 
our  whole  army  under  the  guise  of  a  "partial"  mo- 
bilization, and  be  ready  for  the  invasion  of  Russia 
before  the  latter  had  time  to  mobilize.  According 
to  the  Austro-German  plans  for  the  war  against 
Russia  and  France  Germany  was  to  throw  herself 
first  on  France,  while  the  whole  brunt  of  the  fight- 
ing on  the  eastern  front  would  be  born  by  Austria- 
Hungary.  "Mobilization  means  war"  was  there- 
fore the  cry  of  German  diplomacy,  when  Russia 
followed  our  example  and  ordered  the  mobilization 
of  her  southern  military  districts  on  the  29th  of 
July,  that  is  the  very  day  following  our  mobilization 
of  ten  army  corps.  Austria-Hungary  ordered  a 
general  mobilization  at  one  o'clock  on  the  morning 
of  July  31st.  In  order  not  to  be  placed  at  a  strate- 
gical disadvantage  Russia  once  more  followed 
suit  and  ordered  the  general  mobilization  of  her 
armies  about  11  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  of  the  same 
day,  expressly  declaring,  however,  that  she  did 
it  as  a  measure  of  security,  "being  always  ready 
to  submit  to  the  Hague  Tribunal,  or  the  mediation 
of  the  Powers  as  proposed  by  Sir  Edward  Grey." 
Russia,  moreover,  emphatically  denied  that  "mo- 
bilization means  war";  in  fact,  in  her  past  troubles 
with  Austria  both  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia 
had  mobilized  and  their  troops  had  stood  for  long 
months  guarding  the  frontiers  without  war  as  a 
consequence.  The  German  Government,  however, 
seized  upon  the  Russian  mobilization  as  the  most 


AUSTRO-^GERMAN  INTRIGUE  249 

plausible  available  justification  for  the  predeter- 
mined war.  Russia's  mobilization,  if  not  delayed 
sufficiently,  meant  the  overthrow  of  all  the  German 
plans  of  campaign  and  the  possible  loss  of  the  war. 
The  course  of  the  World  War  proved  these  fears  to 
have  been  well  founded.  It  was  Russia's  unexpect- 
edly rapid  mobilization  and  her  thrust  into  East 
Prussia  that  made  the  German  armies  pause  be- 
fore the  Marne,  and  withdraw  at  least  two  army 
corps  to  throw  them  against  the  invading  Russians. 
This  gave,  for  the  moment,  to  the  French,  British, 
and  Belgian  armies  a  numerical  superiority,  and 
saved  Paris. 

This  was  the  Kaiser's  reason  for  crying  at  the 
top  of  his  voice  to  Russia:  "Mobilization  means 
war!"  He  thus  repeated  Napoleon's  strategy. 
Count  Segur,  in  his  history  of  Napoleon's  campaign 
of  1812  against  Russia,  says  that  Napoleon  made 
complaints  on  the  25th  of  April,  1812,  among  others, 
against  Russia's  armaments,  as  a  menace  to  the 
safety  of  his  empire.  Czar  Alexander  I,  through 
his  Ambassador,  Prince  Kourokin,  vainly  protested 
to  Napoleon  his  pacific  intentions.  Napoleon 
interrupted  the  Czar's  envoy:  "No,  your  master 
desires  war;  I  know  through  my  generals  that  the 
Russian  army  is  hurrying  toward  the  Nienien," 
I5ut  there  were  two  more  reasons  for  wishiug  to 
represent  the  Russian  mobilization  as  meaning 
war.  First,  in  Austria-Hungary  mobilization  was 
slower  and   the  distance  to  be  traversed  longer, 


250  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

by  at  least  ten  days,  than  in  Germany.  To  re- 
strain Russia  from  attacking  Austria,  the  weaker 
ally,  the  German  diplomats  tried  to  deceive 
Russia,  and  keep  her  undecided  in  the  first  critical 
weeks  while  Austria  was  operating  against  Serbia. 
This  explains  also  why  Austria  actually  declared 
war  against  Russia  almost  ten  days  later  than  she 
did  against  Serbia;  the  dates  being  respectively 
July  28  and  August  6,  1914.  I  have  stated  in  a 
previous  chapter  that  when  I  arrived  at  Warsaw 
on  the  26th  of  July  I  found  the  mobilization  of  our 
nationals  in  full  swing  at  the  Consulate  General, 
for  the  whole  district  of  that  consulate.  That 
was  two  days  before  the  official  order  for  the  partial 
mobilization  in  Vienna  was  issued.  In  Austria- 
Hungary  itself  the  mobilization  of  the  officers 
of  the  reserve  began  two  days  before  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  ultimatum.  As  far  as  Germany  is  con- 
cerned, I  learned  from  a  Prussian  army  contractor 
in  Berlin  that  on  July  25,  1914,  artillery  was  sent 
from  Breslau,  German  Silesia,  to  East  Prussia. 

The  second  reason  for  the  Kaiser  declaring 
"Mobilization  means  war,"  was,  militarily,  even 
more  significant.  In  our  plans  for  the  conquest 
of  Russia  we  imitated  Napoleon's  plan  for  the 
invasion  of  Russia.  Napoleon  did  not  consider 
a  mere  frontal  attack  as  prudent,  or,  as  being  most 
effective,  for  bringing  Russia  to  her  knees.  The 
outflanking  movements  in  the  rear  of  the  Niemen 
and  Vistula  armies  were  considered  by  both  con- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  251 

qiierors  as  of  vital  importance  for  a  quick  and  de- 
cisive result.  But  we  did  not  content  ourselves 
with  one  outflanking  movement,  as  did  Napoleon. 
The  Austro-German  General  Staffs  conceived  the 
plan  of  one  frontal  invasion  and  one  principal, 
with  two,  or  rather  three,  minor  flanking  invasions 
in  the  rear  of  the  Russian  armies.  This  was 
arranged  to  create  in  several  parts  of  the  Russian 
Empire  such  conditions  that  the  mobilization  in 
most  of  her  military  districts  would  be  disorganized 
or  that  the  mobilized  troops  would  be  needed  else- 
where, that  is  away  from  the  German  main  line 
of  attack.  This  should  have  served,  in  the  first 
place,  for  the  invasion  of  Russia  by  Sweden  and 
Rumania.  If  the  above  plans  had  matured,  as 
arranged  by  the  German  Kaiser,  not  only  the  mili- 
tary districts  of  Warsaw  and  Vilna,  but  also  those 
of  Petrograd,  Kieff,  and  Odessa,  would  have  been 
.badly  disorganized  and  Russia  would  have  been 
(prevented  from  concentrating  an  army  sufficiently 
hirge  to  take  the  offensive  in  the  great  Vistula 
triangle.  To  paralyze  Russia's  mobilization  in 
other  districts — or  to  attract  mobilized  troops  to 
other  and  far-off  battle-fields — invasions  of  the 
Caucasus  by  Turkey  and  of  Central  Asia  by  Persia 
and  Mghanistan  were  planned.  This  formidable 
menace  of  flanking  invasions  on  her  most  exposed 
frontiers  would  have  disturbed  the  mobilization 
also  in  the  military  districts  of  Stavropol  and  Tiflis, 
both  in  the  Caucasus,  as  also  in  the  military  dis- 


252  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

tricts  of  Central  Asia  and  western  Siberia.  Thus 
the  districts  of  Moscow  and  Khazan  only  would 
have  remained  undisturbed.  That  the  Kaiser's 
great  scheme  of  simultaneous  enveloping,  flanking, 
and  rear  attacks  on  Russia  came  to  naught  is  due 
solely  to  the  decision  of  Russia  to  mobilize  at  the 
first  signal  of  the  Austrian  mobilization. 

I  stayed  for  a  few  days  in  the  excitement  of 
Vienna,  after  our  declaration  of  war  against  Serbia 
and  the  declaration  of  war  by  Germany  against 
Russia,  when  suddenly  I  remembered  that  I  had 
come  fifteen  thousand  miles  to  visit  my  people 
at  home.  I  therefore  left  Vienna  to  go  to  my  home 
in  southern  Styria.  Arriving  there  I  found  the 
simple  mountaineers  so  bewildered  and  frightened 
by  the  orders  for  mobilization  that  they  scarcely 
noticed  my  home-coming.  My  stay  was  brief 
as  a  telegram  arrived  from  Vienna  signed  by  Count 
Berchtold  himself  ordering  me  to  proceed  at  once 
to  Berlin  for  temporary  duty  there  and  on  my  way 
there  to  call  at  the  Ministry.  Upon  my  arrival 
at  Vienna  I  was  informed  that  I  must  not  express 
my  views.  I  also  learned  that  I  was  watched  by 
spies.  I  had  evidently  spoken  too  freely.  In 
Vienna  reports  were  circulated  that  Russian  airmen 
had  bombed  the  railroad  from  Cracow  to  Vienna; 
furthermore,  that  a  hundred  million  francs  in  gold 
were  en  route  from  France  to  Russia  through 
Germany  and  Austria  in  a  hundred  automobiles, 
and  that  everybody  must  be  on  the  lookout  for 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  TNTRTGI  E  253 

these  automobiles.  The  first  report  of  *'  the  bomb- 
ing" of  the  railroad  was,  of  course,  an  invention 
of  the  familiar  type,  fabricated  by  the  "Literary" 
Bureau  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs.  It 
was  in  Hne  with  the  similar  news  circulated  in 
Germany  that  French  airmen  had  opened  hostilities 
against  Germany  before  the  declaration  of  war  by 
bombing  Nlirnberg  and  two  other  German  cities 
and  that  they  were  violating  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium  by  flying  over  that  country.  Our  Foreign 
Office  also  circulated  reports  that  Russia  had 
opened  hostilities  against  Austria-Hungary  without 
a  declaration  of  war  just  as  it  was  reported  that 
France  had  done  against  Germany.  In  regard 
to  the  shipment  of  a  hundred  million  francs  in 
gold  to  Russia  it  was  a  crude  hoax  on  the  part  of 
our  military  authorities  but  it  served  a  very  prac- 
tical purpose,  as  people  everywhere  watched  the 
roads  and  searched  automobiles  for  spies,  etc. 

From  the  telegram  received  from  Count  Bercli- 
told,  I  knew  that  I  must  be  in  bad  odour  in  Vienna. 
Arriving  there  I  called  first  on  Baron  Sonnleithner 
my  departmental  chief. 

"Why  did  you  not  call  on  me  before?"  llio 
Baron  asked  me,  angrily.  "You  were  on  leave 
of  absence,"  1  replied.  "Where  have  you  been  all 
this  time?"  the  Baron  then  demanded.  "In 
Russia,"  I  replied.  Then,  as  if  bitten  by  a  snake, 
the  Baron  sprang  toward  me  and  shouted:  "You 
are  a  Russophile.**     "Yes,  I  am  a  friend  of  Russia. 


254  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

They  are  my  racial  brothers.  If  that  is  a  crime, 
I  ask  to  be  placed  at  once  before  a  court  martial. 
Such  courts  martial  are  already  working  at  full 
speed  in  the  south.  I  have  heard  that  fully  1,500 
persons  have  been  put  into  the  old  dungeons  of  the 
mediaeval  castle  dominating  the  City  of  Ljubljana." 
"That  is  not  true,"  said  the  Baron.  *'0f  course  it 
is  true,"  I  said,  "I  had  this  news  directly  from 
a  German  judge  who  was  sent  to  that  city  to 
investigate  the  cases.  I  ask,  therefore,  once  more, 
to  be  sent  south  and  placed  before  a  court  martial 
if  I  have  committed  a  crime  by  travelling  through 
Russia."  "The  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  can- 
not ask  to  have  you  court  martialed,"  answered 
the  Baron,  "you  are  too  highly  placed  in  the  ser- 
vice and  too  well  known  abroad.  Your  execution 
would  make  too  much  of  a  stir  abroad." 

I  then  asked  him  to  be  allowed  to  return  to 
America,  to  my  post  in  San  Francisco,  instead  of 
going  to  Berlin.  Then  I  went  to  my  hotel,  destroyed 
a  part  of  my  notes  containing  the  impressions 
of  my  journey  in  Siberia,  wrote  out  my  resigna- 
tion, and  brought  it  to  the  Ministry.  There  a 
friend  of  mine  intervened  and  begged  me  to  with- 
draw my  resignation  and  to  go  to  Berlin.  I  sus- 
pected that  my  bold  conversation  with  Count 
Forgach  had  caused  me  all  this  trouble.  I  realized 
that  to  get  out  of  this  Austrian  prison  I  had  to  act 
prudently.  I  therefore  consented  to  remain  in 
the  service  and  go  to  Germany.    On  leaving  the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  255 

Foreign  Office,  I  met  Herr  Von  Nuber,  Austro- 
Hungarian  Consul  General  at  New  York,  who  was 
then  on  leave  of  absence.  We  went  together  into 
a  cafe  on  the  Kaerntner  Strasse  and  our  conversa- 
tion soon  turned  to  the  war.  "I  was  all  morning 
in  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,"  Herr  Von  Nuber 
told  me,  "and  got  some  very  interesting  news." 
In  order  to  learn  this  news,  I  suppressed  my  feelings 
and  appeared  entirely  in  sympathy  with  the  war 
against  Serbia  and  Russia.  I  then  said:  *'What 
is  really  our  purpose  in  invading  Serbia?  "  "We 
must  dispose,  once  for  all,  of  Serbia  as  a  state  and 
of  the  Serbian  race,"  Herr  Von  Nuber  said.  "I 
was  told  in  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  that 
our  aim  in  making  war  on  Serbia  is  to  crush  the 
Serbian  army  and  completely  to  annihilate  it;  this 
accomplished,  we  shall  let  loose  Magyar  bands  in 
Serbia  to  whom  we  shall  give  the  task  of  mur- 
dering the  women  and  children  of  Serbia  in  order 
to  make  an  end  forever  of  the  menace  of  a  Greater 
Serbia." 

This  important  news  was  enough  for  me.  It 
only  confirmed  what  I  had  previously  heard  from 
other  Austrian  and  Hungarian  sources  about  our 
proposed  civilizing  mission  in  the  Balkans.  From 
what  happened  later  it  is  known  only  too  well 
that  the  plan  of  Austria-Hungary  was  carried  out 
to  the  letter.  The  case  of  martyred  Serbia  is  an 
analogue  to  that  of  Armenia.  When  I  was  in  Tiflis, 
some  three  weeks  before  the  war,  I  heard  similar 


256  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

views  expressed  in  regard  to  Armenia  by  a  German 
Secretary  of  Legation  who  was  then  on  his  way 
to  Teheran,  Persia.  In  order  to  understand  why 
Austria-Hungary  had  singled  out  Serbia  and  the 
Serbian  people  for  destruction  and  why  Germany 
had  done  the  same  in  regard  to  Armenia,  the 
strategical  situation  of  both  Serbia  and  Armenia 
must  be  considered.  The  strategical  importance 
of  Serbia  is  great  because  it  lies  across  the  great 
natural  high  road  which  connects  the  East  and  the 
West,  Asia  and  Europe.  The  whole  Balkan  penin- 
sula is  covered  with  a  tangled  mass  of  steep  and 
inhospitable  mountains  which  are  very  difficult 
to  cross.  The  great  commercial  highway,  Berlin- 
Bagdad,  follows  the  broad  valley  of  the  INIorava 
south  from  Belgrade  toward  Nish,  where  it  branches 
off  straight  south  to  Salonica,  while  the  other 
branch  proceeds  over  easy  mountains  into  the  valley 
of  the  Maritza  through  Bulgarian  territory  toward 
Adrianople  and  thence  to  Constantinople.  To 
push  through  to  Salonica  and  Constantinople  was 
our  principal  goal  in  the  Balkans.  Hence,  we  de- 
cided on  the  destruction  of  Serbia,  as  it  lay  in 
the  path  of  our  ambitions.  In  considering  the 
geographical  position  it  is  to  be  noted  that  Armenia 
is  like  a  wedge  thrust  into  the  heart  of  Asiatic 
Turkey,  separating  the  tangled  mountain  ranges 
of  Asia  Minor  from  Asia  proper.  This  gives  Ar- 
menia its  strategical  importance.  Just  as  Serbia 
bars  the  way  from  Europe  into  Asia,  so  does  Ar- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  257 

menia  stand  across  the  way  from  Asia  into  Europe. 
Serbia  and  Armenia  guard  the  approaches  to  Con- 
stantinople from  the  east  and  west  respectively. 
Such  being  the  strategical  significance  of  Serbia 
and  Armenia  it  can  easily  be  imagined  what  an 
important  role  was  reserved  by  history  for  their 
peoples.  The  geographical  position  of  these  two 
countries  has  quite  naturally  directed  their  history 
along  parallel  lines.  Most  of  the  European  con- 
querors of  Asia,  as  most  of  the  Asiatic  conquerors 
of  Europe,  have  used  the  natural  highways  leading 
through  these  countries. 

August  18th,  the  name-day  of  the  Emperor,  and 
the  day  set  for  the  annihilation  of  Serbia,  had 
passed,  and  almost  no  war  bulletins  were  given 
out  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  the  campaign  in  the 
south.  It  happened  that  the  day  after  I  was  in- 
vited to  lunch  by  my  friend  the  young  and  ener- 
getic Secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of 
Vienna,  to  whose  lot  it  fell  in  the  course  of  the  war 
to  place  our  industries  on  a  war  footing.  Wliile  we 
were  at  table  in  one  of  the  fashionable  restaurants 
on  the  famous  Kaerntner  Ring  he  told  me  of  two 
curious  conversations  he  had  had  that  very  day: 
the  one  a  telephone  conversation  with  the  Austrian 
Premier,  Count  Stuergkh,  in  regard  to  the  food 
situation,  during  which  he  told  the  Count  that 
the  latter  would  certainly  meet  the  fate  of  Count 
Latour  (who  was  hanged  to  a  lamp-post  by  the 
revolutionists  in   1848).     The  other  conversation 


358  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

was  with  the  Lord  Mayor  of  Vienna,  during  which 
the  latter  told  him  that  our  troops  had  taken  up 
(on  the  Serbian  front)  "positions  in  the  rear."  I 
had  a  hard  time  to  suppress  my  feelings  at  the  joy- 
ous news  that  my  Serbian  brethren  instead  of  being 
annihilated  by  the  Austrians  had  actually  beaten 
them.  When  after  lunch  we  left  the  restaurant,  I 
was  surprised  at  the  peculiar  darkness  of  the  streets 
although  the  sky  was  cloudless;  but  noticing  crowds 
of  people  looking  through  smoked  glasses  at  the 
sun,  I  remembered  that  there  was  a  total  eclipse 
of  the  sun.  This  seemed  to  me  an  omen  of  the 
eclipse  of  the  old  Danubian  Empire,  which  had  de- 
liberately plunged  the  world  into  a  vast  catastrophe. 
The  same  evening  I  left  Vienna  for  Berlin  firmly 
resolved  that  I  should  never  set  foot  again  in  that 
city  until  the  Hapsburgs  had  fallen  and  my  Slav 
brethren  who  make  up  more  than  half  of  the  pop- 
ulation of  Austria-Hungary  were  liberated  for  ever 
from  the  yoke  of  their  German-Magyar  oppressors. 
In  Berlin  my  position  soon  became  intolerable. 
I  sometimes  failed  to  conceal  my  pro-Entente  feel- 
ings, as  for  instance  once  in  conversation  with  a 
volunteer  worker  at  our  office,  the  son  of  a  mil- 
lionaire banker  from  Vienna,  who  wanted  to  de- 
nounce me  at  once  to  our  Ambassador,  but  was  pre- 
vented from  doing  so  by  one  of  my  friends  to  whom 
he  had  confided  his  intentions.  One  day  Prince 
Hohenlohe,  our  new  Ambassador  to  Berlin,  said 
to  me:  "Please  be  careful  what  you  say-     These 


AUSTROGERMAN  INTRIGUE  259 

Prussians  are  terribly  scared  that  something  may- 
happen  in  Austria  among  our  Slav  subjects.'* 
During  my  stay  in  Berlin  I  came  upon  the  trail 
of  the  Austro-German  propaganda  that  had  been 
set  on  foot  in  Italy,  Rumania,  and  Turkey,  to  keep 
those  countries  out  of  the  war,  or  to  bring  them 
into  the  war  on  our  side.  A  high  Hungarian 
official  serving  as  a  commercial  attache  in  our 
embassy  told  me  on  his  arrival  from  Vienna  in  the 
early  days  of  October  that  our  government  had 
spent  some  eighty  million  francs  in  Rumania 
alone,  and  that  an  equal  sum  had  been  disbursed 
in  Bulgaria,  to  say  nothing  of  what  had  been 
distributed  in  Italy.  As  for  Turkey,  a  volunteer 
worker  whose  son  was  in  the  employ  of  the 
Deutsche  Bank  in  Berlin  confided  to  me  one  day 
that  he  had  just  received  a  telegram  from  his  son. 
"You  know,"  he  said,  "he  was  sent  to  Constanti- 
nople with  four  million  francs  in  gold  for  Enver 
Pasha." 

On  many  important  phases  of  my  stay  in  Berlin 
I  must  remain  silent  in  order  not  to  imperil  certain 
people  who  were  friendly  to  me.  I  watched  the 
interminable  movement  of  German  troops,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  war,  first  to  the  region  of  the 
Mazurian  Lakes,  then  from  the  French  front  to  the 
Galician  battle-fields,  going  to  the  rescue  of  the  de- 
feated Austrian  armies.  The  chief  news  about  the 
happenings  at  the  front  and  about  troop  move- 
ments I  received  from  our  old  surgeon,  a  Prussian 


260  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

staff-surgeon,  who  for  some  fifteen  years  had  been 
connected  with  our  office  and  who  had  numerous 
friends  among  the  high  officers  at  the  front.  In 
spite  of  the  horrors  of  the  war  and  the  impossible 
Prussian  atmosphere  in  which  I  had  to  Hve,  there 
were  many  humorous  scenes  enacted  at  the  office, 
especially  in  the  countless  war  marriages  which, 
among  other  duties,  I  had  to  perform  for  our  sub- 
jects who  were  called  to  the  colours.  Amid  the 
scenes  of  this  tragi-comedy  I  met  a  beautiful  young 

lady  with  a  French  name.  Baroness  D ,  who 

wanted  to  leave  Germany  but  who  was  unable  to  do 
so  not  having  a  passport.  She  was  suspected 
of  being  a  spy.  I  risked  my  head  in  giving  her  a 
document  that  brought  her  safely  across  the 
frontier. 

In  the  middle  of  October,  1914,  Baron  Haymerle 
[Franz  Freiherr  von  Haymerle],  First  Secretary 
of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Embassy  in  Berlin,  son 
of  the  well-known  Austrian  statesman.  Baron 
Haymerle,  told  me  during  a  conversation  lasting 
two  hours — on  the  good  and  bad  fortunes  of  the 
war — ^that  Austria-Hungary,  greatly  perturbed 
by  the  victorious  march  of  the  Russian  armies 
in  Galicia,  had  asked  a  revision  of  her  agree- 
ments with  Germany,  and  had  accordingly  entered 
into  a  new  agreement  as  regards  the  war  aims  of 
both  countries  whereby  Germany  bound  herself 
not  only  to  help  Austria-Hungary  to  drive  the 
Russians  out  of  Galicia,  but  also  not  to  lay  down 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  261 

arms  until  Kleff,  the  capital  of  the  Ukraine,  was 
conquered  for  Austria.  Through  these  new  stip- 
ulations Germany  reaffirmed  Austria's  claims  to 
the  whole  of  the  Ukraine,  that  is,  the  whole  south- 
ern part  of  Russia,  and  declared  also  her  determina- 
tion to  complete  the  conquest  and  partition  of 
Russia. 

These  pourparlers  marked  the  first  revision  of  the 
war  aims  as  they  were  laid  down  In  the  agreement 
concluded  between  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany 
prior  to  the  war.  To  deprive  the  Slavs  of  the  life- 
giving  sea  by  pressing  the  Russians  from  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic  and  Black  seas  was  the  under- 
lying idea  of  this  first  Teutonic  partition  of  Russia. 
By  the  terms  of  this  first  agreement  the  whole 
northwestern  part  of  Russia,  that  Is,  the  Baltic 
provinces,  including  Petrograd,  Russian  Poland, 
and  Lithuania,  was  to  fall  to  the  lot  of  Germany; 
while  Austria,  besides  retaining  her  grip  on  Gali- 
cia,  was  to  receive  as  her  share  of  the  war  spoils  the 
whole  of  the  Ukraine,  including  also  the  old  Kha- 
nat  of  Crimea,  with  the  prospect  of  reviving  all 
the  aspirations  of  the  Ukrainians  to  the  region 
north  of  the  Caucasus,  and  to  the  territory  between 
the  Caspian  Sea  and  the  Ural  Mountains,  far  into 
the  region  of  the  Orenburg  Cossacks.  Possessing 
this  and  other  highly  important  news,  I  realized 
the  time  had  come  for  me  to  leave  Germany  before 
it  was  too  late.  I  had  discovered  that  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Rosenthal,  with  whom  I  became  ac- 


262  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

quainted  through  a  German  volunteer  worker  in 
our  office,  was  watching  my  movements  more  at- 
tentively than  seemed  to  me  necessary.  That  my 
suspicions  were  well  founded  I  learned  nearly  a  year 
later,  when  I  heard  that  Rosenthal,  who  claimed  to 
be  an  American  citizen,  had  been  executed  as  a 
spy  in  the  Tower  of  London,  having  been  sent  to 
England  by  the  German  Government  to  procure 
the  British  Admiralty  plans.  Rosenthal  had  told 
me  that  he  was  an  American  citizen,  and  a  native 
of  the  East  Side  in  New  York.  He  always  wore  a 
little  American  flag  in  his  button-hole,  and  spoke 
English  perfectly. 

It  was  a  Sunday  morning,  late  in  October,  1914, 
when  I  secretly  left  Berlin.  Twenty-four  hours 
later  I  was  on  Swiss  soil — a  free  man.  I  pro- 
ceeded to  Rome,  where  I  lived  in  complete  retire- 
ment for  some  time.  On  December  20,  1914, 
I  sent  in  my  resignation  from  my  post  as  consul  at 
San  Francisco.  I  gave  as  the  reason  for  my  resig- 
nation that  my  Slav  sympathies  did  not  permit  me 
longer  to  serve  the  Austro-Hungarian  Government. 
Before  my  resignation  was  accepted  by  His  Majesty 
I  was  approached  at  my  hotel  by  Count  Colloredo- 
Mansfeld,  who  told  me  he  came  in  the  name  of  the 
Austro-Hungarian  Ambassador  to  dissuade  me 
from  my  intentions  of  leaving  the  foreign  service 
of  Austria-Hungary.  When  I  remained  deaf  to  all 
his  entreaties  and  arguments,  the  Count  finally 
came  out  with  the  full  truth:  "If  you  dare  to  say 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  ^6S 

or  to  do  anything  detrimental  to  the  interests  of 
Austria-Hungary  after  your  resignation,  you  will 
pay  dearly;  besides,  it  will  involve  your  relatives  at 
home." 

Seeing  my  determination  not  to  be  led  into  any 
shameful  compromise,  the  Count  at  once  assumed 
a  more  prudent  and  dignified  attitude  and  said: 
**I  admire  you."  A  few  days  later  I  received  a 
communication  from  Count  Berchtold  telling  me 
that  "His  Imperial  and  Royal  Apostolic  Majesty 
has  with  serene  decision  of  January  27,  1915,  most 
graciously  condescended  to  approve  of  your  re- 
quest to  be  relieved  from  the  Civil  Service." 

I  never  felt  better  in  my  life  than  on  that  day, 
when  I  was  relieved  from  the  oppression  of  Aus- 
trian official  life.  Having  become  a  free  man,  I 
at  once  placed  all  my  experience  gained  in  the 
foreign  service  of  Austria-Hungary,  and  the  special 
knowledge  which  I  had  acquired  during  the  war, 
at  the  service  of  the  Allied  cause.  One  thing  I 
especially  tried  to  impress  upon  the  ambassadors 
of  Russia  and  P^-ance  was  that  the  greatest  danger 
for  the  Triple  Entente  lay  in  Sofia;  for  fully  two 
months  I  endeavoured  to  make  them  understand 
the  precarious  position  in  which  Russia  and  Serbia 
would  be  placed  if  the  Entente  should  disregard 
the  necessity  of  placating  Bulgaria  as  quickly  as 
possible.  Later  events  proved  that  this  warning 
was  only  too  well  founded.  Seeing  that  all  my 
suggestions  remained   unheeded,   I   made  a  final 


THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

attempt  to  warn  the  Allied  Governments  in  a 
memorandum  dated  January  1,  1915,  which  I 
presented  to  the  French  and  Russian  ambassa- 
dors. In  it  I  said  in  substance:  "All  roads  lead 
to  Rome.  But  the  road  to  a  sure  and  speedy 
victory  for  the  Allies  leads  through  Sofia.  Re- 
construct the  Balkan  League;  or  at  least  do  every- 
thing in  your  power  to  prevent  Bulgaria  from 
attacking  Serbia."  For  fully  two  months  I  laboured 
with  the  French  and  Russians  in  Rome  to  convince 
them  that  this  war  involved  Russia's  very  ex- 
istence, that  Austria-Hungary  was  not  fighting  a 
defensive  war  but  a  war  of  conquest.  My  plead- 
ing was  in  vain.  Seeing  that  the  leading  statesmen 
did  not  realize  the  danger  which  threatened  them, 
I  started,  broken-hearted,  for  America.  Here  I 
emphasized  even  more  the  danger  that  was  threat- 
ening the  Allied  cause. 

In  the  summer  of  1915  I  foretold  the  absolute 
annihilation  of  Serbia;  but  to  my  great  sorrow  my 
pet  idea  of  the  necessity  of  reconstructing  the  Bal- 
kan League  to  protect  Serbia  was  never  seriously 
considered  by  the  Allied  Powers.  I  started  with 
new  plans,  when  I  saw  that  all  my  entreaties  were 
in  vain.  I  regarded  all  through  1915  and  1916  the 
recognition  of  the  independence  of  Poland  as  an 
essential  protective  measure  for  Russia  and  the 
Allies,  pointing  out  to  the  Allied  diplomats  that 
the  granting  of  independence  to  Poland  would  rec- 
oncile immediately  the  Austrian  Poles,  the  fiercest 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  265 

opponents  of  Russia,  to  the  Allied  cause.  The 
Poles  in  conjunction  with  the  Jugoslavs  and  the 
Czecho-Slovaks  would  have  brought  about  the  de- 
struction of  the  Dual  Monarchy  at  an  early  date. 
Seeing  that  this  also  was  in  vain,  I  tried  to  impress 
upon  the  Allies  the  urgent  necessity  of  giving  at 
once  binding  promises  for  the  liberation  of  all  Slavs, 
which  measure  would  have  led  all  the  Slav  peoples 
of  Austria-Hungary  at  once  to  give  full  support  to 
the  Allies.  Nothing,  however,  was  done  until  it 
was  too  late;  that  is,  until  Serbia  and  Russia  were 
"bled  white." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Mobilizing  Half  a  Million  Men  in  America 

how   the   austro-hungarian   consulates   sec- 
retly raised  an  army  behind  america's  back 

A  MERICANS  are  familiar  with  the  intrigues 
/%  of  German  and  Austrian  agents  in  the 
J^  jL  United  States  after  the  outbreak  of  the 
World  War.  The  activities  of  Count  Von  Bernstorff, 
the  German  Ambassador;  Dr.  Dumba,  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Ambassador;  Captains  Boy -Ed  and 
Von  Papen,  revealed  the  widespread  organization 
of  Teutonic  propaganda  in  America.  What  is 
not  so  well  known  is  the  extent  of  the  prepara- 
tions made  by  the  German  and  Austrian  authori- 
ties in  the  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
to  mobilize  German  and  Austro-Hungarian  sub- 
jects in  the  United  States. 

During  the  First  Balkan  War  in  1912  certain 
mysterious  telegrams  began  to  arrive  at  the  offices  of 
the  German  and  Austro-Hungarian  representatives 
in  the  United  States.  In  these  telegrams  detailed  in- 
structions were  given  concerning  the  steps  to  be  taken 
for  the  mobilization  of  the  great  army  of  German 
and  Austrian  reservists  living  in  the  United  States. 

266 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  9C7 

Austria  alone  had,  according  to  the  latest 
United  States  census,  nearly  two  million  subjects  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  not  to  mention  the 
tens  of  thousands  that  had  gone  to  Canada  in 
recent  years.  In  the  year  1907  some  three  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  subjects  of  Francis  Joseph  came 
to  the  shores  of  America.  For  the  quick  and  ef- 
fective mobilization  of  these  men,  great  care  and 
minute  planning  was  necessary.  Arrangements 
had  to  be  made  for  the  concentration  of  the  men 
scattered  throughout  the  country  at  certain  desig- 
nated centres;  for  bringing  them  by  the  quickest  and 
cheapest  routes  to  the  Atlantic  seaports;  and, 
finally,  for  their  transportation  to  their  home  ports. 

During  the  First  Balkan  War^  the  first  orders 
were  given  to  all  the  Austro-IIungarian  foreign 
representatives  to  arrange  with  care  lists  of  all 
the  reservists  known  to  reside  in  the  different 
districts  of  the  consulates.  These  orders  were  re- 
peated and  elaborated  during  the  Second  Balkan 
War,  which  had  taken  such  an  unforeseen  and  un- 
favourable turn  in  spite  of  the  high  expectations 
of  Austrian  diplomacy. 

It  must  be  noted  here  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
man  who  has  served  in  the  Austrian  army  to  report 
to  the  Consul  twenty-four  hours  after  each  change 
of  domicile,  his  new  address.  It  is  therefore  an  easy 
matter  to  keep  track  of  all  military  men  even  in  a 
country  where  people  are  not  forced  to  inform  the 
police  where  they  live. 


268  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Orders  were  given  by  the  Ministry  of  War  care- 
fully to  classify  the  men,  in  alphabetical  order, 
into  groups  according  to  the  year  in  which  they 
were  recruited.  Furthermore,  to  separate  the 
Linien  troops  from  the  Landwehr  and  these 
two  classes  from  the  Landsturm.  After  all  this 
work  had  been  completed  and  the  lists  thereof  sent 
in — and  this  was  done  regularly — the  foreign 
representatives  of  Austria-Hungary  had  to  figure 
out  carefully  the  expense  of  bringing  each  man  and 
each  small  group  of  men  from  their  widely  sepa- 
rated places  of  work — some  being  in  the  backwoods 
of  Oregon,  others  in  the  mines  of  Arizona  or 
Nevada,  others  in  Alaska,  still  others  in  Louisiana 
or  Florida,  and  so  on — to  the  nearest  concentration 
points,  where  they  were  to  be  placed  under  the 
command  of  the  highest  ranking  officer. 

In  these  figures  had  to  be  included  the  double 
pay  (Kriegsloehnung)  which  the  soldier  was  to 
receive  from  the  time  of  mobilization  for  the  entire 
trip  from  the  place  of  work  of  each  reservist  to  the 
first  rallying  centre;  from  there  to  New  York  as  the 
chief  rallying  centre  for  most  of  the  mobilized  men ; 
from  New  York  to  Trieste  or  Fiume,  the  two  chief 
ports  of  Austria  and  Hungary  respectively,  and 
from  these  two  points  to  the  outfitting  places  of  each 
man,  designated  in  the  military  passports.  It  was 
even  contemplated — this  for  the  cases  where  suit- 
able persons  were  not  available  to  take  command 
of  the  various  detachments  gathered  on  the  first 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  269 

mobilization  order  in  the  most  important  rallying 
centres  of  America — that  special  men  should  be 
sent  out  from  the  different  consulates  to  such  places 
to  bring  the  men  safely  to  New  York.  If  necessary, 
officers  of  the  various  consulates  were  to  be  dis- 
patched for  this  purpose.  The  figures  thus  cal- 
culated for  each  district  separately  had  to  be  sent  to 
the  Austro-IIungarian  Embassy  in  Washington  and 
from  there  to  the  Foreign  Office  in  Vienna,  to  be  in 
turn  again  transmitted  to  the  Minister  of  War  or 
the  Minister  for  National  Defence.  Naturally  all 
this  was  done  with  the  greatest  secrecy;  all  orders 
of  this  kind  were  given  as  "strictly  reserved" 
{Streng  Rescrvaf). 

In  addition  to  these  preliminary  matters,  ar- 
rangements were  made  for  the  printing  and  distri- 
bution of  "mobilization  proclamations"  which  were 
to  be  sent  to  each  reservist.  The  mobilization  or- 
ders were  printed  by  the  Ministry  of  War  in  Vienna 
in  its  own  secret  printing  shop  and  sent  through 
the  channels  of  the  Foreign  Office  in  Vienna  and  the 
Embassy  in  Washington  by  special  courier  to  avoid 
their  being  opened  and  recognized  by  the  United 
States  Customs  ofHcials.  Once  in  Washington  the 
mobilization  proclamations  were  distributed  to  the 
various  offices  by  express.  These  proclamations 
were  accompanied  by  strict  orders  to  keep  them 
secret  and  were  placed  by  the  consular  officials  in 
safe-deposit  vaults.  These  documents  were  printed 
not  only  in  German  and  ^lagyar,  but  also  in  the 


370  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

nine  other  languages  that  are  spoken  in  Austria- 
Hungary  and  were  delivered  to  us  in  1912. 

Each  consulate  was,  moreover,  given  minute 
instructions  concerning  the  distribution  of  these 
proclamations  and  other  details  connected  with  the 
anticipated  mobilization.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
envelopes  had  to  be  addressed  in  a  few  days;  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  mobilization  orders  had  to  be 
providedwith  names  and  addresses,  the  various  data 
of  mobilization,  and  other  necessary  information  such 
as  the  routes  to  be  taken  to  the  points  of  assembly. 
Furthermore,  tickets  had  to  be  obtained  from  the 
various  railroad  offices  to  be  sent  to  the  men  with 
the  mobilization  orders  as  it  was  not  considered 
safe  to  send  money  to  the  reservists;  and  money 
or  express  orders  had  to  be  arranged  for  each  man, 
providing  him  with  the  necessary  means  of  suste- 
nance for  the  trip. 

The  plan  for  the  division  of  work  required  for 
carrying  out  the  mobilization  orders  in  the  short- 
est time  possible  was  worked  out  by  the  Consulate 
General  of  Chicago  and  the  Consulate  of  Cleveland 
and  was  then,  by  order  of  the  Embassy  in  Washing- 
ton, adopted  by  all  the  consulates  in  the  United 
States.  The  plan  provided,  in  the  greatest  detail,  for 
making  the  work  of  mobilization  strictly  mechani- 
cal and  efficient;  even  the  most  petty  regulations 
were  made  concerning  the  distribution  of  work 
among  the  clerks;  what  was  to  be  undertaken 
first;  how  long  they  were  to  work  on  one  line  of 


AUSTROGERMAN  INTRIGUE  271 

orders  and  how  long  on  another;  which  of  the 
Consulate  clerks  should  write  the  envelopes;  who 
should  fill  out  the  mobilization  orders;  how  the 
various  officials  were  to  relieve  one  another  in  the 
mobilization  work  to  avoid  exhaustion  through  too 
much  over-work. 

Besides  these  military  measures,  precautions 
were  taken  by  the  Austro-Hungarian  foreign  repre- 
sentatives in  America  to  prevent  the  outbreak  of 
revolution  in  Austria-Hungary,  when  war  should 
be  declared.  While  the  Austro-IIungarian  Govern- 
ment rejoiced  over  the  steady  current  of  gold  that 
was  flowing  from  foreign  countries,  especially  from 
America,  to  Austria-Hungary,  in  the  form  of  the 
savings  of  the  emigrants,  it  was  in  deadly  fear  of 
the  golden  current  of  free  thought  and  ideas  of 
political  liberty  which  also  poured  from  the  great 
American  Republic  into  old  aristocratic  Austria- 
Hungary.  The  oppressed  races,  especially  the 
Slavs,  which  came  to  the  shores  of  a  free  country 
like  America,  wanted  to  help  their  brethren  at 
home  to  free  themselves  from  political  bondage. 
To  keep  the  truth  from  the  people  at  home,  where 
the  press  was  under  the  control  of  the  Government 
censors,  both  Austria  and  Hungary  deemed  it  nec- 
essary to  establish  a  cordon  guarding  tlie  Austro- 
Hungarian  Empire  from  I  lie  <'ontagion  nf  \]\r  free 
thought  of  America. 

An  order  was  issued  by  Count  Berchtold,  two 
years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  World  War,  to 


272  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

all  Austro-Hungarian  representatives  in  America  to 
prepare  "black  lists"  of  all  the  Slav  newspapers 
issued  in  foreign  countries,  with  a  proper  classifica- 
tion of  "Anti- Austrian,"  "Anti-Hungarian,"  or 
"Anti-Monarchical."  In  these  black  lists  the  con- 
suls were  required  to  make  careful  mention,  not  only 
of  the  political  opinions  which  each  paper  professed, 
but  also  those  of  its  editor.  This  paternal  care  went 
so  far  that  the  Viennese  and  Budapest  governments 
wanted  to  be  minutely  informed  as  to  where  the 
editor  was  born,  where  his  relatives  were  living, 
with  whom  he  had  connections  at  home,  and  when 
he  expected  to  make  a  trip  to  Austria-Hungary  to 
visit  his  relatives.  These  black  lists  were  from 
time  to  time  revised  so  as  to  be  always  up  to  date. 
Special  reports  about  the  movements  of  editors 
had  also  to  be  made  to  the  Foreign  Office  at  Vienna. 

As  a  second  and  more  drastic  measure  a  black 
list  of  all  the  Southern  Slav  patriots  and  sympa- 
thizers in  the  United  States  had  to  be  prepared,  in 
which  special  care  was  to  be  taken  to  indicate  the 
political  opinions  of  the  black-listed  men,  with  the 
names  of  all  their  relatives  in  Austria-Hungary  and 
where  they  lived.  Also  for  these  black-listed  per- 
sons the  consuls  had  to  give  exact  data  for  every 
voyage  such  persons  proposed  to  make  to  Europe. 
Thirdly,  the  Foreign  Office  ordered  its  representa- 
tives to  attach  to  the  lists  photographs  of  the  men 
listed. 

Nearly  all  the  newspapers,  with  the  exception 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  273 

of  those  subsidized  by  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Government,  were  entered  on  the  black  lists,  thus 
losing  the  right  of  entry  into  the  Austro-Hungarian 
Empire.  Furthermore,  the  most  prominent  men 
among  the  Jugoslavs,  despite  the  fact  that  they 
had  long  ceased  to  be  citizens  of  Austria-Hungary, 
had  their  names  and  photographs  placed  in  the 
Criminal  Album  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  Govern- 
ment. 

I  steadily  refused  to  put  a  single  man  in  my 
consular  district,  which  comprised  all  the  territory 
west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  as  well  as  Alaska, 
on  the  black  lists.  So  far  as  I  know  all  the  other 
consuls  complied  with  the  order.  As  soon  as  war 
against  Serbia  was  declared,  these  lists  were 
taken  from  the  secret  vaults  and  all  the  persons 
listed  who  were  in  Austria  or  Hungary  were  put 
into  prison.  As  a  result,  numerous  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  former  subjects  of  Francis 
Joseph,  who  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  were 
visiting  the  country  of  their  birth,  were  arrested 
by  the  Austro-Hungarian  authorities,  and  were 
released  only  after  the  most  strenuous  protests  of 
the  American  Embassy  in  Vienna. 

No  person  who  knew,  as  I  did,  of  these  detailed 
preparations  for  war  which  were  made  during  the 
year  101  "2,  could  fail  to  be  convinced  of  the  deliber- 
ate purpose  of  the  Austrian  and  German  authorities 
to  precipitate  a  great  world  cataclysm. 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  United  States  of  Slavia 
a  prerequisite  for  a  united  states  of  europe 

"I  now  most  earnestly  hope  to  see  a  genuine  republican 
Russia,  a  democratic  Russia,  the  United  States  of  Russia, 
a  democratic  Federal  Republic  of  Russia  come  out  of  the 
present  chaos.  The  motto  must  be  Justice  for  all  and  an 
abhorrence  of  class  tyranny  of  every  kind." — Theodore 
Roosevelt's  last  message  to  Russia,  December  12, 1918. 

IN  THE  Treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk  the  Central 
Empires  realized  their  fondest  dream:  the  con- 
quest and  partition  of  Russia.  The  subjuga- 
tion of  the  whole  Slav  race  had  become  a  fact. 
Great  was  the  outcry  throughout  the  world,  and 
especially  among  Russia's  Allies,  against  this  ruth- 
less crime. 

But  having  ultimately  overthrown  on  the  battle- 
field the  military  might  of  the  Central  Empires — 
and  to  this  overthrow  Russia  and  the  Slavs  con- 
tributed half  of  the  blood — have  not  the  Allies 
revoked  the  Treaty  of  Brest-Litovsk?  True,  but 
with  what  results?  Has  not  one  of  the  Allies — 
Japan — occupied  half  of  Siberia,  and  geologically 
the  richest  part  of  it?    And  have  not  Russia's  for- 

274 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  275 

mer  Allies  been  guilty  of  shutting  her  off  from  all 
approaches  to  the  sea,  "to  let  her  dream  out  her 
existence  as  an  inland  empire,"  as  was  Germany's 
desire?  In  other  words,  whether  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  willingly  or  unwillingly,  the  Allies 
in  effect  have  sanctioned  and  perpetuated  the 
Germanic  blockade  of  Russia  which  during  the 
war  had  been  so  much  more  effective  than  the 
Allied  blockade  of  Germany. 

But  by  shutting  off  Russia  from  all  approaches 
to  the  sea,  and  by  erecting  on  the  ruins  of  old 
Russia  a  series  of  small  states  with  arbitrary 
frontiers,  can  peace  be  established  in  the  East 
permanently  or  even  for  a  number  of  years?  If 
Russia  is  Balkanized,  will  the  Russian  and  Balkan 
Slavs  be  able  to  play  their  historic  r61e  in  the  future: 
namely,  that  of  shielding  the  Western  nations  and 
Western  civilization  from  the  inroads  of  Asiatic 
conquerors?     Will  they  not  rather  be  helpless! 

WTiere,  then,  lies  the  solution  of  the  greatest 
problem  the  white  race,  and  with  it  the  whole  of 
mankind,  was  ever  confronted  with;  namely,  to 
prevent  the  Balkanization  of  Europe,  and  a  fu- 
ture world  conffagration. 

The  solution  lies  in  a  United  States  of  Kurop(\ 
Its  main  basis  must  be  found  in  the  recognition 
of  the  principle  of  the  equality  of  the  three  main 
laces  which  people  Europe:  Latins,  Gennans,  and 
Slavs.  The  beginning  of  this  United  Stales  of 
Europe  should  be  a  United  States  of  Slavia,  to 


276  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

extinguish  in  the  East  the  very  sparks  of  a  future 
world  war,  and  to  erect  instead  a  bulwark  of  Chris- 
tianity and  Western  civilization.  This  federation 
should  serve  as  the  connecting  link  between  the 
Orient  and  Occident;  the  safe  blending  ground  of 
European  and  Asiatic  peoples  and  civilizations. 
Once  the  United  States  of  Slavia,  comprising  all 
Slav  peoples,  and  embracing  in  its  membership, 
with  equal  rights,  numerous  Semitic  and  Mongol 
peoples  who  are  inextricably  linked  with  them,  is 
firmly  established,  Europe  will  at  last  be  in  a  po- 
sition to  frame  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  of  Europe. 

If  the  Western  nations :  Germany,  France,  Italy, 
and  above  all  Great  Britain,  sincerely  desire  the 
peace  of  Europe  and  the  world,  they  will  whole- 
heartedly support  the  project  for  a  United  States  of 
Slavia  as  a  basis  for  a  United  States  of  Europe. 

To  advance  the  idea  of  a  United  States  of  Slavia 
in  Europe  is  no  longer  premature.  The  supreme 
moment  of  history  to  which  all  Slav  nations  have 
for  centuries  been  looking  forward  as  the  hour  of 
their  liberation  has,  through  the  victory  of  the 
Allied  nations,  at  last  arrived.  To-day  the  Slav 
is  free,  whatever  his  particular  name  or  nation  may 
be;  he  brings  forth  new  ideas,  new  philosophy,  new 
views  of  the  world;  and  the  world  is  taking  gradu- 
ally increasing  interest  in  everything  opening  new 
horizons  to  Slav  national  life. 

In  the  foreground  of  all  the  modern  tendencies 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  277 

of   the   various   Slav   peoples   stands   one   which 
is  almost  as  old  as  the  Slav  race  itself,  namely, 
the  tendency  to  unite  not  only  culturally,  but  also 
politically    into   one   big   federated   state.     That 
which  for  centuries  has  seemed  a  Utopia  is  to-day 
rapidly  approaching  the  realm  of  practical  politics. 
It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that,  up  to 
the  time  of  the  World  War,  to  the  American  public 
in  general  "Slavs"  were  a  type  of  working  people 
coming  from  somewhere  in  Hungary  or  southern 
Europe.     Later,    the    American    press    identified 
Slavs  with  Russians  and  used  the  terms  inter- 
changeably, usually  speaking  of  them  as  "the  hosts 
of  the  Czar."     But  as  the  war  advanced  the  Amer- 
ican public  gradually  came  to  realize  that  Poles, 
Czecho-Slovaks,  etc.,  form  part  of  the  great  Slav 
race.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Slav  race  is  itself 
a  branch  of  the  Indo-Aryan  race,  and  consists  of 
three  main  groups :  the  Western,  theEastern,  and  the 
Southern  Slavs.     The  Western  Slavs  include  Poles, 
Czecho-Slovaks,  and  the  Slavs  in  Germany  (i.e.,  the 
Serbs  of  Upper  and  Lower  Lusatia  and  theCassoubs 
and  Slovince  or  Wends  in  West  Prussia  and  Pomer- 
ania).    The  Eastern  Slavs  are  the  Russians  whose 
southern  branch  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Ukrainians 
in  the  Ukraine,  of  Ruthenes  in  Galicia,  Bukovina, 
and  Hungary.     Finally  the  Southern  or  Jugoslavs 
(Jug  meaning  south  in  the  Slav  language)  include 
the  Bulgars,  Serbs,  Croats,  and  Slovenes. 

Each  of  these  various  Slav  nations  has  its  partic- 


278  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

ular  language,  which,  however,  is  of  one  common 
Slav  origin,  so  that  wherever  the  Slavs  meet  they 
can  understand  one  another.  There  are  differences 
in  idioms  and  vernaculars  which  make,  for  instance, 
Bulgarian  differ  from  Slovene,  etc.  But  it  may 
safely  be  asserted  in  at  least  a  general  way  that 
within  a  few  decades  the  only  recognized  Slav 
languages,  of  the  educated  classes,  will  be  Russian, 
Polish,  Jugoslav,  and  Czecho-Slovak.  A  con- 
gress of  Slav  scientists,  merchants,  industrialists, 
statesmen,  and  publicists  should  be  held  in  the  near 
future  to  plan  ways  and  means  for  the  introduction 
of  a  common  language  for  all  the  Slav  peoples. 
Each  Slav  nationality  should  be  represented  by  the 
same  number  of  delegates  at  such  a  congress,  and 
the  common  language  should  be  adopted  solely 
with  a  view  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  Slav 
race. 

The  Slavs  greatly  surpass  other  European  races 
in  numbers.  According  to  the  figures  of  Professor 
Niederle,  which  are  somewhat  unfavourable  to  the 
Slavs,  there  were  136,500,000  Slavs  in  1900,  while 
in  1916  their  number  was  estimated  by  Professor 
Masaryk  at  156,700,000.  In  1900,  the  Russians 
were  put  at  94,000,000,  and  the  other  Slavs  at 
42,000,000.  The  Russians,  therefore,  were  more 
than  twice  as  numerous  as  all  the  other  Slav 
peoples  together.  Interspersed  among  the  Slavs 
are  smaller  or  greater  groups  of  many  other  peoples 
of  Semitic  or  Mongolian  origin,  forming  with  the 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  279 

Slavs  one  national  unit  and  bound  to  disappear  in 
time  into  the  great  Slav  sea  which  stretches  from 
middle  Europe  far  into  Asia,  and  to  the  distant 
shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Inevitably  then  the 
Slav  race  will  tend  to  surpass  the  western  Euro- 
peans in  numbers  and  importance. 

In  one  of  its  main  aspects  the  World  War  was 
fought  for  the  political  and  economic  liberation 
of  the  Slavs,  and  it  was  left  to  America  to  speak 
the  final  word  and  do  the  final  deeds  in  the  great 
world  cataclysm.  The  war  itself,  from  a  political 
standpoint,  was  first  a  consequence  of  the  long 
delay  of  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe,  in  liberating 
the  Balkan  Slavs  from  the  Turkish  yoke;  and, 
secondly,  a  consequence  of  the  unwillingness  of  the 
Entente  Powers  to  permit  the  Balkan  Slavs  to 
fall  again  under  the  domination  of  the  Central 
Empires.  Furthermore,  the  Czecho-Slovaks  of 
Austria-Hungary,  in  the  very  heart  of  Europe, 
had  to  be  liberated  from  the  German-Magyar  yoke. 
And  finally,  the  crime  of  the  iniquitous  partition  of 
Poland — by  which  a  nation  that  once  was  the  pride 
of  Europe,  the  cradle  of  human  rights,  was  held  in 
bondage — cried  out  for  undoing. 

Owing  to  the  errors  of  European  statesmen — com- 
mitted especially  by  (Jermany  and  Great  Britain 
at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  in  1815,  and  at  the  Con- 
gress of  Berlin,  in  1878,  which  with  all  their  fatal 
consequences  led  to  this  war — all  the  Slav  nations, 
not  even  the  Russians  excepted,  were  gradually 


280  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

being  again  enslaved  by  the  Pan-German-Magyar- 
Turkish  bloc. 

It  was  particularly  President  Wilson  who  seemed 
to  realize  that  only  the  liberation  of  the  Slavs 
from  German-Magyar-Turkish  slavery,  in  what- 
ever form  it  existed,  could  bring  a  lasting  peace 
to  the  world.  Finally,  all  the  belligerent  nations 
of  the  Allies  came  to  realize  that  only  through  the 
liberation  of  the  Slavs  could  world  peace  be  had. 
They  saw  that,  otherwise,  Europe  would  be  a  slum- 
bering volcano  ready  to  burst  forth  again  at  any 
moment  and  bury  under  the  melting  lava  of  its 
passions  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  thus  disrupting 
the  world  even  more  tragically  than  did  even  the 
World  War. 

Consequently,  toward  the  close  of  the  war,  the 
Allies  centred  their  efforts  to  a  great  extent  on 
the  annihilation  of  the  German-Magyar-Turkish 
supremacy  over  the  Slavs  with  the  result  that  new 
Slav  states,  to  wit:  Czecho-Slovak,  Jugoslav, 
Bulgarian,  Polish,  and  Russian,  arose  to  new 
national  life  from  the  ruins  of  the  short-lived 
Mittel-Europa.  As  yet,  these  states  are  not 
stable;  their  frontiers  have  not  been  drawn,  and 
some  time  must  probably  elapse  before  this  can 
be  successfully  accomplished.  Even  more  human 
blood  may  have  to  be  shed  before  this  can  be 
achieved  at  all.  With  all  this,  other  great  prob- 
lems have  appeared  on  the  troubled  world  horizon, 
like   that  of   Russian  bolshevism,  the  Jugoslav- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  281 

Italian  dispute,  etc.  While  keeping  all  this  in  view, 
farsighted  Americans  should  familiarize  themselves 
with  one  great  aim  which  the  Slavs  regard  as  the 
logical  conclusion  of  all  their  historical  and  political 
traditions;  namely,  the  establishment  of  a  great 
Slav  federation  resembling  that  of  the  United 
States,  which  would  insure  their  rights  of  nation- 
ality, language,  economic  independence,  and,  above 
all,  their  lasting  freedom. 

There  being  in  Europe  onlj'-  70,000,000  Germans, 
45,000,000  English,  less  than  40,000,000  French, 
25,000,000  Spaniards,  and  33,000,000  Italians,  as 
against  some  220,000,000  Slavs  and  other  peoples 
inseparably  associated  with  them,  it  is  not  in  the 
least  astonishing  that  a  certain  belief  in  the  so- 
called  Pan-Slav  peril  has  arisen  among  the  western 
European  peoples.  Still,  these  apprehensions  lack 
justification  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  phi- 
losophy and  religion  of  the  Slavs  are  widely  differ- 
ent from  those  of  Western  civilization;  and  that  the 
Slavs  in  general  are  a  war-hating  and  peace-loving 
people.  Their  uniting  in  one  great  federation 
would  help  to  stabilize  the  peace  of  the  world  in- 
stead of  endangering  it. 

The  economic  advantage  arising  for  America 
out  of  such  a  solution  of  the  complex  and  ever- 
menacing  European  problem  cannot  be  too  much 
emphasized.  American  industry  and  trade  would 
immensely  profit  as  the  newly  created  Slav  federa- 
tion would  be  eager  to  conclude  the  most  ad  van- 


282  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

tageous  commercial  treaties  with  her  American  sis- 
ter repiibHc  in  order  to  throw  off  the  German 
economic  and  pohtical  yoke.  America,  by  thus 
aiding  the  Slavs  to  secure  permanent  freedom, 
would  win  for  herself  permanent  access  to  their 
immense  European  and  Asiatic  markets;  would 
become  their  teacher  and  guide  in  the  upbuild- 
ing of  new  industries  in  the  Slav  countries;  in 
the  developing  of  the  limitless  natural  resources 
of  the  Caucasus,  the  Ural,  and  the  Altai  regions 
of  eastern  Siberia,  the  Amur  region,  and  the 
Maritime  Province,  etc.,  as  w^ell  as  of  the  Balkans 
and  Poland.  America  would  thus  have  oppor- 
tunity to  direct  the  development  of  the  immense 
deposits  of  coal,  iron,  and  gold,  and  the  bound- 
less wheat-growing  plains  of  the  Slav  countries. 
There  are  about  eight  million  Slavs  in  America 
from  whose  ranks  the  necessary  commercial,  in- 
dustrial, and  political  agents  could  be  recruited. 
No  country  ever  had  the  opportunity  to  start 
such  vast  and  widely  embracing  commercial  and 
industrial  activities  as  America  has  to-day  among 
the  Slav  nations  of  Europe. 

The  Americans  of  Slav  origin  will  with  enthusi- 
asm support  American  development  of  Slav  coun- 
tries, thus  aiding  to  establish  a  mutually  helpful 
relationship  between  a  great  Slav  federation  and 
the  great  American  federation.  The  American 
Slav  is  fond  of  saying  that  "Slavia  is  his  sister,  but 
America  his  adopted  mother." 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  283 

On  many  historical  occasions,  in  meetings,  in  the 
press,  and  in  national  conventions — one  of  the  fore- 
most of  which  was  held  during  the  All-Slav  Expo- 
sition, in  Prague,  in  1848 — the  Slavs  have  pledged 
themselves  to  help  and  to  promote  the  idea  of  the 
independence  of  each  of  the  Slav  nations,  and  of 
the  Slavs  in  general.  To-day,  the  Slavs  of  Europe 
are  planning  a  federation  of  Slav  nations,  not  for 
the  waging  of  future  wars  of  vengeance,  but  for  the 
preservation  of  their  own  and  the  world's  peace. 

To-day,  more  than  ever,  the  Slavs  are  profoundly 
convinced  that  only  unity  can  save  them  from 
destruction;  and  unity  means  federation.  This 
federation  must  begin  with  a  federation  of  the 
Western  Slavs  and  another  of  the  Southern  Slavs, 
with  complete  independence  of  all  the  member 
nations  in  their  internal  affairs.  To  these  two 
federations  should  be  added  a  federation  of  East- 
ern Slavs,  i.e.,  of  those  states  which  have  arisen 
in  place  of  the  former  Russian  Empire.  For  both 
Western  Slavs  (the  Czecho-Slovaks  and  the  Poles) 
and  the  Jugoslavs  (Slovenes,  Croats,  Serbs,  and 
Bulgars),  are  convinced  that  even  if  so  united  they 
will  still  need  further  support.  This  support  can 
best  be  found  in  a  union  or  confederation  of  all  Slavs, 
that  is  in  a  union  of  the  Western  and  Southern  Slav 
federations  with  the  Eastern  Slavs,  i.e.,  with  Russia. 
Therefore,  what  the  Slavs  are  striving  for  is,  in 
ihe  last  analysis,  the  creation  of  a  United  States 
of  Slavia  on  the  basis  of  the  Swiss  Federation, 


284  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

or  the  federation  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
with  each  constituent  state  free  to  adopt  its  own 
form  of  government. 

To  exclude  Russia,  Serbia,  or  Bulgaria  from  such 
a  federation  because  of  past  differences  would  be, 
to  say  the  least,  very  unwise.  By  such  confedera- 
tion the  immense  eastern  and  southern  Slav  mar- 
kets would  be  thrown  open  to  all  the  Slav  nations, 
would  quickly  enrich  them,  and  heal  the  terrible 
wounds  inflicted  upon  them  all  by  the  war. 

All  the  hatreds  of  past  centuries  ever  provoked 
and  nourished  by  Austro-German  intrigues  will 
melt  before  the  warmth  of  the  sun  of  freedom. 
Hatred  is  a  bad  adviser  in  diplomacy.  Hate  never 
wins  the  sympathy  or  support  of  humanity.  The 
Balkan  Slavs,  for  instance,  had  the  sympathy  of 
America  in  their  war  of  liberation  from  the  Turk- 
ish yoke,  but  they  lost  it  as  soon  as  they  began  to 
fight  among  themselves. 

On  January  3,  1919,  President  Wilson  de- 
livered in  Rome  a  very  remarkable  speech  in  which 
he  said:  "The  great  difficulty  among  such  states 
as  those  of  the  Balkans  has  been  that  they  were 
ahvays  accessible  to  secret  influence;  that  they 
were  being  penetrated  by  intrigue  of  some  sort  or 
another;  that  north  of  them  lay  disturbed  popula- 
tions which  were  held  together  not  by  sympathy 
and  friendship,  but  by  the  coercive  force  of  a 
military  power. 

/'There  is  only  one  thing  that  holds  nations  to- 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  285 

gether,  if  you  exclude  force,  and  that  is  friendship 
and  good  will.  The  only  thing  that  binds  men  to- 
gether is  friendship,  and  by  the  same  token  the  only 
thing  that  binds  nations  together  is  friendship." 

This  that  was  said  of  the  Balkan  Slavs  may 
be  said  of  all  the  Slavs.  The  German-Mag^'ar- 
Turkish  bloc,  which  so  long  held  under  its  su- 
premacy and  exploited  the  Slav  race,  spread  a 
net  of  intrigue  throughout  the  great  Slav  world, 
inciting  one  Slav  people  against  another,  thus 
artificially  breaking  them  up  into  quarrelling  frag- 
mjents.  Austria-Hungary  maintained  her  precarious 
existence  only  by  the  ruthless  application  of  the 
famous  unofficial  state  maxim  of  the  Hapsburgs: 
**Dmide  et  impera.'^  The  only  remedy  which  can 
heal  all  the  wrongs  created  by  past  intrigue  is 
mutual  sympathy,  friendship,  and  justice.  But 
these  ideas  are  not  new;  they  are,  in  fact,  traditional 
among  the  Slavs.  That  an  American  president, 
as  leader  of  the  great  American  nation,has  endorsed 
them  is  but  a  proof  that  the  American  and  Slav 
souls  are  to-day  vibrating  with  the  same  passion,  the 
same  deep  desire  for  friendship,  sympathy,  and 
justice  among  the  nations. 

In  the  great  work  "Slavdom,"  published  in 
Prague  by  a  score  of  prominent  Slav  public  men. 
Dr.  K.  Kramarz,  the  founder  of  the  new  Slav 
movement,  Neo-Slavism,  while  most  warmly  de- 
fending the  Poles  against  the  Russification  in- 
augurated by  the  Czar's  Government,  says:  "The 


286  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

Slavs  do  not  intend  to  live  for  the  conquest  of  or 
by  the  oppression  of  non-Slav  nations;  the  more  so 
then  must  we  exclude  the  idea  that  any  Slav  nation 
should  prosper  at  the  expense  of  other  Slav  peoples 
or  by  making  an  unfair  use  of  its  political,  cultural, 
or  economic  superiority.  Suum  cuique  must  be 
the  first  law  of  the  Slav  world." 

Justice,  sympathy,  and  friendship  among  them- 
selves must  therefore  be  the  chief  aim  of  the  Slavs. 
As  to  their  internal  affairs,  or  interrelations,  it  is 
the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  defenders  of  the  new 
Slav  idea  of  unity  that  each  Slav  nation  has  the 
right  to  govern  herself;  that  she  has  the  inalienable 
right  to  liberty  of  conscience,  that  is,  religious 
liberty;  liberty  for  her  own  language,  that  is  liberty 
in  education,  in  speech,  of  the  press ;  and  liberty  of 
administration  in  all  her  internal  affairs.  This 
Slav  federation  would  oppose  vigorously  any  at- 
tempt, for  instance,  at  the  Russification  of  the 
Poles,  or  Polonization  of  the  Czecho-Slovaks,  or 
vice  versa,  just  as  the  Slavs  have  in  the  past  opposed 
all  attempts  at  the  Germanizing  of  their  kins- 
men. To  express  it  differently:  the  place  of  every 
Slav  nation  inside  this  great  Slav  family  would  be 
that  of  "A  daughter  in  her  mother's  house,  a 
mistress  in  her  own."  This  formula  will  insure 
to  each  Slav  nation  its  distinct  nationality  and 
language  and  the  right  to  its  existence  as  a  separate 
nation,  until  time  and  circumstances  shall  merge 
them  in  one  organic  whole. 


AUSTRO-GERIVIAN  INTRIGUE  287 

But  the  scarecrow  of  Russification  is  buried  for- 
ever, because  it  was  the  Germans,  and  particularly 
the  German  Kaiser,  who  influenced  the  Czar  and 
persuaded  him  to  use  oppressive  methods  against 
the  Poles. 

In  an  exactly  similar  way  must  be  viewed  the 
national  problems  of  the  Balkan  Slavs.  There 
must  be  no  Bulgarizing  of  Serbs,  or  Serbization  of 
the  Bulgars.  No  Slav  nation  should  be  permitted 
to  force  its  nationality  or  language  on  any  other. 
All  enlightened  Slav  leaders  must  realize  that  only 
if  they  hold  firmly  together  on  grounds  of  justice 
and  tolerance  can  they  be  successful  in  dealing  with 
friends  or  foes.  If  they  come  in  single  file  before 
the  forum  of  the  world  they  will  make  little  im- 
pression. If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  march  on  to 
the  scene  in  an  unbroken  phalanx,  they  are  bound  not 
only  to  make  an  impression,  but  to  score  a  success. 

The  Slavs  must  realize  that  "United  we  stand, 
divided  we  fall."  Further,  the  Slavs  must  say  to 
the  world :  "All  for  one  and  one  for  all."  They  must 
say  aloud  and  in  no  uncertain  terms  that  there  can 
be  no  peace  in  the  world  until  the  Slavs,  all  of  them, 
are  liberated.  They  must  make  tlie  world  realize 
the  meaning  of  the  famous  Jiiot  of  Joseph  dc  Mais- 
tre:  "Bury  a  Slav  aspiration,  a  Slav  idea,  under  a 
fortress  and  that  fortress  will  blow  up."  But  their 
unification  is  the  sine  qua  non  to  make  the  i\'\\)- 
hmiats  and  the  nations  of  the  world  respect  them 
and  prevent  them  from  conmiitting  the  blunder  of 


288  THE  INSIDE  STOR^  OF 

dividing  any  Slav  nation  or  putting  it  under  a 
foreign  yoke. 

The  common  affairs  of  the  Slav  Federation 
should  comprise  the  army  and  navy,  the  customs 
service  and  diplomacy.  Everything  else  should 
be  managed  by  the  various  states  composing  the 
Union,  in  accordance  with  their  local  customs  and 
desires.  The  common  affairs  must  serve  as  a 
shield  of  protection  against  external  enemies,  and 
should  repose  in  firm  hands. 

The  Slav  Union,  by  adopting  the  principle  of 
nationality,  may  do  away  with  national  disputes  and 
leave  no  ground  for  friction.  Where  there  is  a 
majority  of  a  given  nationality  in  a  given  tenitory, 
the  inhabitants  of  that  particular  community 
should  be  entitled  to  national  schools,  thus 
protecting  their  rights  as  a  distinct  national 
group. 

The  only  definition  of  the  term  "Slav"  should  be 
the  speaking  of  a  Slav  tongue.  Any  other  definition 
will  fail  to  win  the  support  of  the  Slavs,  as  it 
would  fail  to  win  the  support  of  any  modern 
nation.  No  nation,  speaking  a  Slav  language,  be 
it  Bulgarian,  Russian,  or  Polish,  may  be  excluded. 

THE  TRANSITION  AND  THE  DEFINITE  PERIOD 

In  uniting  the  Slovenes,  Croats,  Serbs,  and 
Bulgars  in  the  Jugoslav  Federation;  the  Czechs, 
Slovaks,  and  Poles  into  the  Western  Slav  Federa- 
tion, and  all  the  Russians  in  the  Eastern  Slav 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  289 

Federation,  there  will  of  necessity  be  two  periods 
through  which  the  state-forming  process  will  have 
to  pass.  The  first,  the  period  of  transition :  during 
which  Poles  must  be  governed  by  Poles,  Czechs  by 
Czechs,  Slovaks  by  Slovaks,  Slovenes  by  Slovenes, 
Croats  by  Croats,  Serbs  by  Serbs,  Bulgars  by  Bul- 
gars,  and  Russians  by  Russians,  while  there  will  be 
as  many  languages.  This  first  period  may  last 
for  one  or  two  generations. 

Wlien  the  second  period  arrives  all  the  smaller 
Slav  nationalities  will  have  melted  into  one  nation, 
which  by  mutual  agreement  among  enlightened 
leaders  will  have  been  welded  together  by  the  use 
of  a  common  literary  language. 

There  should  be  complete  liberty  of  creed  in  all 
component  states  of  the  United  States  of  Slavia; 
a  strict  separation  of  Church  from  State;  above 
all,  no  such  thing  as  religious  control,  or  supremacy, 
should  ever  be  permitted;  such,  for  instance,  as 
making  Poland  an  exclusively  Catholic  state. 

No  such  a  thing  as  a  Catholic  Slav  nation  does 
or  can  exist.  Even  Poland  is  not  Catholic,  because 
she  has  among  her  population  a  great  number  of  ad- 
lierents  of  other  creeds.  Poland,  in  her  greatest 
period,  when  she  was  admired  by  everybody  and  by 
all  nations  of  the  world,  stood  for  complete  religious 
liberty.  In  the  Czech  and  Slovak  lands  the  people 
are  more  divided  as  to  religion,  but  they  consider 
themselves  as  absolutely  united  in  spite  of  religious 
differences. 


dOO  THE  INSIDE  STORY  OF 

As  for  the  Southern  Slavs,  they  are  composed  of 
the  Orthodox,  CathoHcs,  Mohamraedans,  and  Jews. 
Absolutely  no  distinction  can  be  made  between  the 
people  because  of  their  espousal  of  any  one  of  these 
religions.  The  Jews  in  Serbia  have  fought  valiantly 
on  the  side  of  the  Serbian  Orthodox  people,  and 
have  shown  themselves  worthy  of  the  complete 
confidence  which  the  Serbian  Government  wisely 
confided  in  them.  The  Jugoslavs  must  and  will 
always  condemn  the  former  Austrian  Government 
for  creating  animosities  in  the  Southern  Slav 
countries,  especially  in  Bosnia,  by  instigating 
religious  hatreds,  by  instituting  in  Bosnia  a 
constitution  based  on  religious  differences,  so  that 
the  local  Parliament  in  Sarajevo  was  even  elected 
on  religious  lines.  The  Jugoslavs  discarded  the 
idea  of  religious  intolerance  a  long  time  ago,  as  they 
recognized  in  it  a  treacherous  weapon  of  the  Aus- 
trian Government  deliberately  devised  to  hold 
them  in  slavery. 

The  capital  of  the  United  States  of  Slavia  should 
be  erected  wherever  in  the  view  of  the  joint  dele- 
gates it  will  best  suit  the  common  interests  of  the 
several  states.  Whether  this  be  in  Moscow,  Kieff, 
Yalta,  or  Cracow,  is  quite  immaterial.  The  federal 
capital  of  the  Balkan  Slavs  should  be  similarly 
located.  If  necessary,  a  new  city  should  be  built, 
so  situated  as  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  various 
peoples  comprising  the  union.  Also  the  capital  of 
the  Western  Slav  Federation  should  be  located  in 


AUSTRO-GERMAN  INTRIGUE  291 

one  of  the  smaller  towns  on  the  Polish-Slovak 
frontier  rather  than  in  a  big  city.  Experience 
has  shown  that  great  industrial  and  commercial 
centres  are  not  a  fit  environment  for  quiet  legisla- 
tive and  administrative  work. 

While  the  Slavs  are  passing  through  the  chaotic 
and  possibly  even  turbulent  and  bloody  period  of 
transition  from  the  old  hopeless  thraldom  which 
they  have  so  long  suffered  into  this  stable,  peaceful, 
and  contented  condition  they  must  ask  their 
European  and  American  friends  to  be  patient  with 
them  and  to  remember  that  all  the  great,  free  states 
have  had  to  grope  their  way  upward  from  confu- 
sion and  turbulence.  Let  them  remember  also 
that  the  Slav  ideals  are  their  ideals,  and  that  as 
they  achieved  their  aims  so  the  Slavs  shall  achieve 
theirs,  provided  they  are  aided  and  not  thwarted 
or  neglected  by  the  older  and  more  powerful  na- 
tions with  whom  they  have  fought  in  a  victorious 
war  against  the  would-be  oppressors  and  exploiters 
of  all  mankind. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

PREUMINARY  PEACE  CONFERENCE 

Report  presented  to  the  Preliminary  Peace  Con- 
ference by  the  Commission  on  the  ResponsihiHty  of 
the  Authors'of  the  War  and  on  Enforcement  of  Penalties, 

March  29,  1919. 
Commission  on  the  Responsibility  of  the  Authors 
of  the  War  and  on  Enforcement  of  Penalties. 

Annex  II. — Memorandum  of  Reservations  by  the 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  to  the  Report  of 
the  Commission,  April  4, 1919. 

(Signed) 

Robert  Lansing 
James  Brown  Scott. 

"The  conclusions  reached  by  the  Commission  as  to 
the  responsibility  of  the  authors  of  the  war,  with  which 
the  representatives  of  the  United  States  agree,  are 
thus  stated : 

"The  war  was  premeditated  by  the  Central  Powers, 
together  with  their  allies,  Turkey  and  Bulgaria, 
and  was  the  result  of  acts  deliberately  conunittcd 
in  order  to  make  it  unavoidable. 
"Germany,  in  agreement  with  Austria-Hungary, 
deliberately  worked  to  defeat  all  the  many  con- 

*Sinrc  this  book  was  written  the  ultimate  confirmation  of  some  of  our 
fundnmental  oontontioiis,  contained  in  these  extracts  from  this  rc^njrt  of  llic 
Commission  on  the  Hesponsibility  of  the  Authors  of  the  War.  etc..  haa  been 
made  public.    The  Acthobs. 

t06 


296  APPENDIX 

ciliatory  proposals  made  by  the  Entente  Powers 
and  their  repeated  efforts  to  avoid  war. 

"The  American  representatives  are  happy  to  declare 
that  they  not  only  concur  in  these  conclusions,  but 
also  in  the  process  of  reasoning  by  which  they  are 
reached  and  justified.  However,  in  addition  to  the 
evidence  adduced  by  the  Commission,  based  for  the 
most  part  upon  official  memoranda  issued  by  the  various 
governments  in  justification  of  their  respective  at- 
titudes toward  the  Serbian  question  and  the  war 
which  resulted  because  of  the  deliberate  determination 
of  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  to  crush  that  gallant 
little  country  which  blocked  the  way  to  the  Dardanelles 
and  to  the  realization  of  their  larger  ambitions,  the 
American  representatives  call  attention  to  four  docu- 
ments, three  of  which  have  been  made  known  by  His 
Excellency  Milenko  R.  Vesnitch,  Serbian  Minister  at 
Paris.  Of  the  three,  the  first  is  reproduced  for  the 
first  time,  and  two  of  the  others  were  only  published 
during  the  sessions  of  the  Commission. 

"The  first  of  these  documents  is  a  report  of  Von 
Wiesner,  the  Austro-Hungarian  agent  sent  to  Sarajevo 
to  investigate  the  assassination  at  that  place  on  June 
28,  1914,  of  the  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand,  heir  to 
the  Austro-Hungarian  throne,  and  the  Duchess  of 
Hohenberg,  his  morganatic  wife. 

"The  material  portion  of  this  report,  in  the  form  of  a 
telegram,  is  as  follows : 

Herr  von  Wiesner,  to  the  Foreign  Ministry,  Vienna. 

Sarajevo,  July  13,  lOH,  1.10  'p.m. 
Cognizance  on  the  part  of  the  Serbian  Government,  participa- 
tion in  the  murderous  assault,  or  in  its  preparation,  and  supplying 


APPENDIX  297 

the  weapons,  proved  by  nothing,  nor  even  to  be  suspected.    On  the 
contrary  there  are  indications  which  cause  this  to  be  rejected.* 

"The  second  is  likewise  a  telegram,  dated  Berlin, 
July  25,  1914,  from  Count  Szoegyeny-Maricli,  Austro- 
Hungarian  Ambassador  at  Berlin,  to  the  ]Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs  at  Vienna,  and  reads  as  follows: 

Here  it  is  generally  taken  for  granted  that  in  case  of  a  possible 
refusal  on  the  part  of  Serbia,  our  immediate  declaration  of  war  will 
be  coincident  with  military  operations. 

Delay  in  beginning  military  operations  is  here  consideretl  as  a 
great  danger  because  of  the  intervention  of  other  Powers. 

We  are  urgently  advised  to  proceed  at  once  and  to  confront  the 
world  with  a  fait  accompli.^ 

"The  third,  likewise  a  telegram  in  cipher,  marked 
strictly  confidential y  and  dated  Berlin,  July  27,  1914, 
two  days  after  the  Serbian  reply  to  the  Austro-Hungarian 
ultimatum  and  the  day  before  the  Austro-IIungarian 
declaration  of  war  upon  that  devoted  kingdom,  wa-s 
from  the  Austro-IIungarian  Ambassador  at  Berlin 
to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  at  Vienna.  The 
material  portion  of  this  document  is  as  follows: 

The  Secretiiry  of  State  informe<l  me  very  «lefinitely  and  in  the 
strictest  confidence  that  in  the  near  future  possible  proposals  for 

'lien  T.  Wiuntran  Uiniiterivmdt*  A»u$$ern  in  Witn. 

Sarnimo,  /t.  Jvii  19H.  I.IO  ^.m. 

MitwUjH-iisrlmft  ■rrbiirbpr  Regieruim,  Lcitunx  an  AUmUt  odef  dcMra  Vorbarritanc 
unil  B.-<lrlliiiiK  der  Wafft-n.  durrh  nichl«  cririri»*n  odcT  murh  niir  »ti  vrrmotm.  R*  h«»J*b»o 
vielnichr  AnhoIUpunktr,  din  all  auiffcsrhloMCO  aiMuscfacn. 

^Grnf  SuMjyen]/  an  Minitlerdii  Aruutm  in  tt'itn. 

lifrlin,  f.V  JtUt   I9H. 

Ilir  r  wird  aiixTiiiriii  vorsiuKrarUt.  «i«M  Mil  •rcoUicUc  abwMaMd*  AatWWt  HwMmi  wlort 

uiis<rr  Krie«Mrkllnnig vwbudca ait  kiii»fbchwi OpwmtioaM «MfM  wtrd*. 

Man  "ieht  hicr  io  jcdrr  Vmotrruag  •!••  B«iiiia««  &m  kiMiMiMhtB  OptriiioBH  poMt 

Gcftthr  Utrrffi  Kinmu<  !  \tirhle. 

MiuirMluiudriii«co>l.  ^itvbca  uml  die  Wch  vor  ria /Mi Mr»«^iMat«lb«. 


298  APPENDIX 

mediation  on  the  part  of  England  would  be  brought  to  Your  Ex- 
cellency's knowledge  by  the  German  Government. 

The  German  Government  gives  its  most  binding  assurance  that . 
it  does  not  in  any  way  associate  itself  vdth  the  proposals:  on  the  con- 
trary, it  is  absolutely  opposed  to  their  consideration  and  only  trans- 
mits them  in  compliance  with  the  English  request.* 

"Of  the  English  propositions,  to  which  reference 
is  made  in  the  above  telegram,  the  following  may  be 
quoted,  which,  under  date  July  30,  1914,  Sir  Edward 
Grey,  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  telegraphed 
to  Sir  Edward  Goschen,  British  Ambassador  at  Berlin : 

If  the  peace  of  Europe  can  be  preserved,  and  the  present  crisis 
safely  passed,  my  own  endeavour  will  be  to  promote  some  arrange- 
ment to  which  Germany  could  be  a  party,  by  which  she  could  be 
assured  that  no  aggressive  or  hostile  policy  would  be  pursued  against 
her  or  her  allies  by  France,  Russia,  and  ourselves,  jointly  or  sepa- 
rately.f 

"While  comment  upon  these  telegrams  would  only 
tend  to  weaken  their  force  and  effect,  it  may  neverthe- 
less be  observed  that  the  last  of  them  was  dated  two 
days  before  the  declaration  of  war  by  Germany  against 
Russia,  which  might  have  been  prevented  had  not 
Germany,  flushed  with  the  hope  of  certain  victory  and 
of  the  fruits  of  conquest,  determined  to  force  the  war.'* 


'Graf  Szoegyeny  an  Minitterium  des  Aeuatern  in  Wien. 

(S07,  Streng  vertraulich.)  Berlin,  «7.  Juli  19U. 

StaatssekretSr  erklarte  mir  in  streng  vertraulicher  Form  sehr  entschieden,  dass  in  der 
nSchsten  Zeit  eventuelle  VermittlungsvorschlSge  Englands  durch  die  deutsche  Regierung  ziir 
Kenntnis  Euer  Exc.  gebracht  wUrden. 

Die  deutsche  Regierung  versichere  aut  das  BUndigste.  dass  tie  rich  in  keiner  Weite  mit  den 
VoTsebliigen  identifiziere,  sogar  entschieden  gegen  deren  Beriicksichtigung  sei,  und  dieselbea 
nur,  um  der  englischen  Bitte  Rechnung  zu  tragen,  weitergebe. 

tBritish  Parliamentary  Papers,  "Miscellaneous,  No.  10  (1915),"  "Collected  Documents 
Relating  to  the  Outbreak  of  the  European  War,"  p.  78. 


BERLIN  WANTED  WAR  ON  SERBIA, 
BERCHTOLD  TOLD 

RESENTS    CRITICISM    AND    INSISTS    GERMAN    ENVOY    IN- 
TIMATED MILITARY  ACTION  WAS  SOUGHT 

By  Karl  H.  von  Wiegand 

Herald  and  Examiner  Staff  Correspondent 

Berlin,  Oct.  8. 1919.— I  have  just  received  an  impor- 
tant telegram  from  Count  Von  Berclitold  who,  as  Foreign 
Minister  of  Austria-Hungary,  formulated  and  sent  the 
ultimatum  to  Serbia  which  brought  about  the  World  War. 

The  Count,  who  is  in  Benie,  Switzerland,  answers  a 
message  from  me  in  which  I  asked  him  four  questions 
touching  on  as  many  vital  points  raised  against  him  in 
the  revelation  of  the  secret  records  of  the  Vienna  Foreign 
Office  and  the  accompanying  commentaries  by  the 
compiler  of  the  recent  Red  Book,  Doctor  Gooss. 

In  these  disclosures  Berclitold  was  represented  more 
or  less  as  the  alleged  arch-conspirator  that  forced  the 
great  war.  The  former  Austrian  Foreign  Minister  now 
informs  me  in  his  telegram  that  he  was  led  to  believe 
that  Berlin  wanted  military  action  against  berbia  and 
that  he  feared  Germany  would  drop  Austria  as  an  ally 
if  the  latter  did  not  take  aggressive  action. 

ADMITS   ALTERING    RECORDS 

He  admits  having  made  alterations  in  the  rocordn 
and  gives  his  reasons  therefor.     Hr  ^t:.t<-  h-  :hIv,..m1 

290 


300  APPENDIX 

Berlin  in  time  of  the  contents  of  the  ultimatum  to 
Serbia. 

I  was  with  Count  Von  Berchtold  in  the  fourth  Isonzo 
battle  near  Gorizia,  where  he  served  as  a  cavalry  cap- 
tain attached  to  the  staff  of  General  Wurm  as  a  dispatch 
courier.  I  also  knew  him  in  Vienna.  I,  therefore, 
telegraphed  him  asking  whether  he  could  give  answers 
to  the  following  four  questions : 

1.  Why  he  had  made  alterations  in  the  original 
drafts  of  records  of  cabinet  meetings  in  Vienna. 

2.  Whether  the  German  Ambassador  at  Vienna, 
Von  Tschirschky,  had  given  him  the  impression  that 
Berlin  wanted  war  with  Serbia. 

3.  Whether  it  was  true  that  he  had  not  given  Von 
Tschirschky  the  textual  contents  of  the  ultimatum  to 
Serbia. 

4.  Whether  it  was  true  that  he  had  not  given  Berlin 
any  answer  to  Sir  Edward  [now  Viscount]  Grey's  last 
proposal  for  mediation  which  was  forwarded  to  the 
Austrian  Government  by  Berlin. 

Here  is  the  Count's  telegram  to  me  in  answer  to  these 
questions : 

Wiegand,  Berlin. 

The  following  is  in  answer  to  your  questions.  I  am  making  an 
exception  to  meet  your  special  wishes: 

1 — The  subsequent  changes  and  corrections  in  the  protocol 
drafts  were  made  because  the  recorder,  not  being  a  stenographer, 
made  notes  in  longhand,  but  not  verbatim.  As  a  result  of  this 
incorrect  versions  occurred,  even  whole  passages  being  omitted. 
This  made  necessary  the  subsequent  corrections  and  supplementary 
notes. 

2 — Repeated  conversations  and  interviews  I  had  with  Ambassador 
Von  Tschirschky  could  create  no  other  impression  than  that  his 
[the  German]  Government  expected  warlike  action  on  our  part 


APPENDIX  301 

against  Serbia.  Especially  a  conversation  I  had  with  him  during 
the  early  half  of  July  convinced  me  that  if  we  did  not  show  tliis 
time  that  we  were  in  earnest,  then  on  the  next  occasion  Berlin  not 
only  would  not  support  us  but  would  in  fact  "orient"  itself  in  some 
ohter  direction. 

WTiat  that  would  have  meant  for  us,  in  view  of  the  ethnographic 
composition  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  and  the  territorial  aspirations 
of  our  neighlx)ur  states  need  not  be  exjilained. 

3 — Tschirschky  was  informed  about  the  material  points  in  the 
ultimatum  to  Serbia  before  the  final  editing  of  the  note,  and  the 
textual  contents  were  given  to  him  two  days  before  the  Belgrade 
dcTnarche. 

4 — We  accepted,  in  principle,  Grey's  last  me<liation  projwsal, 
with  two  reservations  which  the  military  [advisers]  found  necessary. 
In  view  of  vital  national  interests  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  being  in- 
volved therein,  this  acceptance  signified  a  great  sacrifice  for  us,  as  in 
mediation  even  an  ally  must  be  calculated  upon  as  a  jxtssible  op- 
ponent. 

The  delay  in  answering  Grey's  proposal  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  answer  was  not  determined  by  us  until  July  30th,  and  the  min- 
isterial council,  as  far  as  I  recall,  could  not  convene  until  the  follow- 
ing day  iK'cause  of  the  absence  of  Tisza  [Count  Stephen  Tisza, 
Hungarian  Premier,  later  assassinateil]. 

(Signed)    Berchtold.* 

■From  (.'hicago  Ueraid  and  Etanintr,  October  10,  ]910. 


TUE    END 


THE   COUNTRY   LIFE   PRESS 
GARDEN  CITY,  N.   Y. 


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